We consider a trapped cigar-shaped atomic Bose-Einstein condensate irradiated by a single far-off resonance laser polarized along the cigar axis. The resulting laser induced dipole-dipole interactions between the atoms significantly change size of the condensate, and can even cause its self-trapping.
We study a gaseous Bose-Einstein condensate with laser-induced dipole-dipole interactions using the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory within the Popov approximation. The dipolar interactions introduce long-range atom-atom correlations, which manifest themselves as increased depletion at momenta similar to that of the laser wavelength, as well as a roton dip in the excitation spectrum. Surprisingly, the roton dip and the corresponding peak in the depletion are enhanced by raising the temperature above absolute zero.
We introduce an effectively one-dimensional (1D) model of a bosonic gas of particles carrying collinear dipole moments which are induced by an external polarizing field with the strength periodically modulated along the coordinate, which gives rise to an effective nonlocal nonlinear lattice in the condensate. The existence, shape and stability of bright solitons, appearing in this model, are investigated by means of the variational approximation and numerical methods. The mobility of solitons and interactions between them are studied too.
We show that nuclear motion of Rydberg atoms can be induced by resonant dipole-dipole interactions that trigger the energy transfer between two energetically close Rydberg states. How and if the atoms move depends on their initial arrangement as well as on the initial electronic excitation. Using a mixed quantum/classical propagation scheme we obtain the trajectories and kinetic energies of atoms, initially arranged in a regular chain and prepared in excitonic eigenstates. The influence of off-diagonal disorder on the motion of the atoms is examined and it is shown that irregularity in the arrangement of the atoms can lead to an acceleration of the nuclear dynamics.
We present a method for producing three-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates using only laser cooling. The phase transition to condensation is crossed with $2.5 {times} 10^{4}$ $^{87}mathrm{Rb}$ atoms at a temperature of $T_{mathrm{c}} = 0.6 mumathrm{K}$ after 1.4 s of cooling. Atoms are trapped in a crossed optical dipole trap and cooled using Raman cooling with far-off-resonant optical pumping light to reduce atom loss and heating. The achieved temperatures are well below the effective recoil temperature. We find that during the final cooling stage at atomic densities above $10^{14} mathrm{cm}^{-3}$, careful tuning of trap depth and optical-pumping rate is necessary to evade heating and loss mechanisms. The method may enable the fast production of quantum degenerate gases in a variety of systems including fermions.
We point out the possibility of having a roton-type excitation spectrum in a quasi-1D Bose-Einstein condensate with dipole-dipole interactions. Normally such a system is quite unstable due to the attractive portion of the dipolar interaction. However, by reversing the sign of the dipolar interaction using either a rotating magnetic field or a laser with circular polarization, a stable cigar-shaped configuration can be achieved whose spectrum contains a `roton minimum analogous to that found in helium II. Dipolar gases also offer the exciting prospect to tune the depth of this `roton minimum by directly controlling the interparticle interaction strength. When the minimum touches the zero-energy axis the system is once again unstable, possibly to the formation of a density wave.