Quantum reflection of bright matter-wave solitons

Cornish, S.L.; Parker, N.G.; Martin, A.M.; Judd, T.E.; Scott, R.G.; Fromhold, T.M.; Adams, C.S.

doi:10.1016/j.physd.2008.07.011

Quantum reflection of bright matter-wave solitons

Cornish, S.L.; Parker, N.G.; Martin, A.M.; Judd, T.E.; Scott, R.G.; Fromhold, T.M.; Adams, C.S.

Authors

Professor Simon Cornish s.l.cornish@durham.ac.uk
Professor

N.G. Parker

A.M. Martin

T.E. Judd

R.G. Scott

T.M. Fromhold

Professor Stuart Adams c.s.adams@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

We propose the use of bright matter-wave solitons formed from Bose–Einstein condensates with attractive interactions to probe and study quantum reflection from a solid surface at normal incidence. We demonstrate that the presence of attractive interatomic interactions leads to a number of advantages for the study of quantum reflection. The absence of dispersion as the soliton propagates allows precise control of the velocity normal to the surface and for much lower velocities to be achieved. Numerical modelling shows that the robust, self-trapped nature of bright solitons leads to a clean reflection from the surface, limiting the disruption of the density profile and permitting accurate measurements of the reflection probability.

Citation

Cornish, S., Parker, N., Martin, A., Judd, T., Scott, R., Fromhold, T., & Adams, C. (2009). Quantum reflection of bright matter-wave solitons. Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, 238(15), 1299-1305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physd.2008.07.011

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Jan 1, 2009
Deposit Date	Jan 23, 2012
Publicly Available Date	Apr 12, 2013
Journal	Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena
Print ISSN	0167-2789
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	238
Issue	15
Pages	1299-1305
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physd.2008.07.011
Keywords	Quantum reflection, soliton, Bose–Einstein condensate

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Copyright Statement
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Physica D : nonlinear phenomena. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Physica D : nonlinear phenomena, 238 (15), 2009, 10.1016/j.physd.2008.07.011