Optical creation of dark-bright soliton lattices in one-dimensional multicomponent Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We present a widely accessible and experimentally realizable technique for the controlled creation of dark-bright solitons and soliton lattices in one-dimensional atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. The method is based on preparing the condensate in a dark state of a $\Lambda$-coupled three-level system. Numerical simulations of the corresponding two-component system reveal that individual dark-bright solitons created through this scheme can survive over experimentally accessible timescales, even when the coupling laser fields are switched off. Meanwhile, the fate of soliton lattices upon the quench of the fields depends on the scattering lengths. When they are all equal, the lattice is found to persist on timescales comparable to the condensate lifetime, even though the analysis of dynamical stability reveals that they possess unstable modes. In this case the resulting destabilization is not found to be detrimental, as it leads to recurrent dynamics. However, for unequal scattering lengths the lattice structure gets destroyed once the instability sets in, which happens after a few tens of milliseconds after the quench of the optical fields.

10 pages, 6 figures

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