Phase coherence and superfluid-insulator transition in a disordered Bose-Einstein condensate

Authors

Y. P. Chen
J. Hitchcock
D. Dries
M. Junker
C. Welford
R. G. Hulet

Published in:

Physical Review A 77,3 (2008) 033632;

Link to original published article:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.77.033632

Abstract

We have studied the effects of a disordered optical potential on the transport and phase coherence of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of Li-7 atoms. At moderate disorder strengths (V-D), we observe inhibited transport and damping of dipole excitations, while in time-of-flight images, random but reproducible interference patterns are observed. In situ images reveal that the appearance of interference is correlated with density modulation, without complete fragmentation. At higher V-D, the interference contrast diminishes as the BEC fragments into multiple pieces with little phase coherence.

Keywords

Optics;; Physics, Atomic, Molecular & Chemical

Date of this Version

January 2008