TY - JOUR
T1 - Two-dimensional loosely and tightly bound solitons in optical lattices and inverted traps
AU - Sakaguchi, H.
AU - Malomed, B. A.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2004/6/14
Y1 - 2004/6/14
N2 - We study the dynamics of nonlinear localized excitations ('solitons') in two-dimensional (2D) Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) with repulsive interactions, loaded into an optical lattice (OL), which is combined with an external parabolic potential. First, we demonstrate analytically that a broad ('loosely bound', LB) soliton state, based on a 2D Bloch function near the edge of the Brillouin zone (BZ), has a negative effective mass (while the mass of a localized state is positive near the BZ centre). The negative-mass soliton cannot be held by the usual trap, but it is safely confined by an inverted parabolic potential (anti-trap). Direct simulations demonstrate that the LB solitons (including those with intrinsic vorticity) are stable and can freely move on top of the OL. The frequency of the elliptic motion of the LB-soliton's centre in the anti-trapping potential is very close to the analytical prediction which treats the solition as a quasi-particle. In addition, the LB soliton of the vortex type features real rotation around its centre. We also find an abrupt transition, which occurs with the increase of the number of atoms, from the negative-mass LB states to tightly bound (TB) solitons. An estimate demonstrates that for the zero-vorticity states, the transition occurs when the number of atoms attains a critical number Ncr∼ 103, while for the vortex the transition takes place at Ncr ∼ 5 × 10 3 atoms. The positive-mass LB states constructed near the BZ centre (including vortices) can also move freely. The effects predicted for BECs also apply to optical spatial solitons in bulk photonic crystals.
AB - We study the dynamics of nonlinear localized excitations ('solitons') in two-dimensional (2D) Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) with repulsive interactions, loaded into an optical lattice (OL), which is combined with an external parabolic potential. First, we demonstrate analytically that a broad ('loosely bound', LB) soliton state, based on a 2D Bloch function near the edge of the Brillouin zone (BZ), has a negative effective mass (while the mass of a localized state is positive near the BZ centre). The negative-mass soliton cannot be held by the usual trap, but it is safely confined by an inverted parabolic potential (anti-trap). Direct simulations demonstrate that the LB solitons (including those with intrinsic vorticity) are stable and can freely move on top of the OL. The frequency of the elliptic motion of the LB-soliton's centre in the anti-trapping potential is very close to the analytical prediction which treats the solition as a quasi-particle. In addition, the LB soliton of the vortex type features real rotation around its centre. We also find an abrupt transition, which occurs with the increase of the number of atoms, from the negative-mass LB states to tightly bound (TB) solitons. An estimate demonstrates that for the zero-vorticity states, the transition occurs when the number of atoms attains a critical number Ncr∼ 103, while for the vortex the transition takes place at Ncr ∼ 5 × 10 3 atoms. The positive-mass LB states constructed near the BZ centre (including vortices) can also move freely. The effects predicted for BECs also apply to optical spatial solitons in bulk photonic crystals.
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U2 - 10.1088/0953-4075/37/11/001
DO - 10.1088/0953-4075/37/11/001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:3042597421
VL - 37
SP - 2225
EP - 2239
JO - Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
JF - Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
SN - 0953-4075
IS - 11
ER -