Splitting and recombination of bright-solitary-matter waves

Wales, Oliver J.; Rakonjac, Ana; Billam, Thomas P.; Helm, John L.; Gardiner, Simon A.; Cornish, Simon L.

Abstract

Atomic Bose–Einstein condensates confined in quasi-1D waveguides can support bright-solitary-matter waves when interatomic interactions are sufficiently attractive to cancel dispersion. Such solitary-matter waves are excellent candidates for highly sensitive interferometers, as their non-dispersive nature allows them to acquire phase shifts for longer times than conventional matter-wave interferometers. In this work, we demonstrate experimentally the splitting and recombination of a bright-solitary-matter wave on a narrow repulsive barrier, realizing the fundamental components of an interferometer. We show that for a sufficiently narrow barrier, interference-mediated recombination can dominate over velocity-filtering effects. Our theoretical analysis shows that interference-mediated recombination is extremely sensitive to the barrier position, predicting strong oscillations in the interferometer output as the barrier position is adjusted over just a few micrometres. These results highlight the potential of soliton interferometry, while putting tight constraints on the barrier stability needed in future experimental implementations.

Citation

Wales, O. J., Rakonjac, A., Billam, T. P., Helm, J. L., Gardiner, S. A., & Cornish, S. L. (2020). Splitting and recombination of bright-solitary-matter waves. Communications Physics, 3, Article 51. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-020-0320-8

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 20, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Mar 13, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020
• Deposit Date: Jun 17, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 19, 2020
• Journal: Communications Physics.
• Electronic ISSN: 2399-3650
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 3
• Article Number: 51
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-020-0320-8
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1328634