Dynamics of a period-three pattern loaded Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice

Abstract

We discuss the dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate initially loaded into every third site of an optical lattice using a description based upon the discrete nonlinear Schrodinger equation. An analytic solution is developed for the case of a periodic initial condition and is compared with numerical simulations for more general initial configurations. We show that mean field effects in this system can cause macroscopic quantum self-trapping, a phenomenon already predicted for double well systems. In the presence of a uniform external potential, the atoms exhibit generalized Bloch oscillations which can be interpreted in terms of the interference of three different Bloch states. We also discuss how the momentum distribution of the system can be used as experimental signature of the macroscopic self trapping effect.

10 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator in a gas of ultracold atoms
• Bogoliubov approach to superfluidity of atoms in an optical lattice

Cited by in corpus (5)

• The Gross-Pitaevskii Equation for Bose Particles in a Double Well Potential: Two Mode Models and Beyond
• Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Optical Lattice-Loaded BEC Atoms: Beyond HFB Approximation
• Superfluid Dynamics of a Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Periodic Potential
• Theory of correlations between ultra-cold bosons released from an optical lattice
• Bose - Einstein Condensate Superfluid-Mott Insulator Transition in an Optical Lattice