Self-Ordered Limit Cycles, Chaos, and Phase Slippage with a Superfluid inside an Optical Resonator

Francesco Piazza and Helmut Ritsch
Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 163601 – Published 15 October 2015
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Abstract

We study dynamical phases of a driven Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to the light field of a high-Q optical cavity. For high field seeking atoms at red detuning the system is known to show a transition from a spatially homogeneous steady state to a self-ordered regular lattice exhibiting superradiant scattering into the cavity. For blue atom pump detuning the particles are repelled from the maxima of the light-induced optical potential suppressing scattering. We show that this generates a new dynamical instability of the self-ordered phase, leading to the appearance of self-ordered stable limit cycles characterized by large amplitude self-sustained oscillations of both the condensate density and cavity field. The limit cycles evolve into chaotic behavior by period doubling. Large amplitude oscillations of the condensate are accompanied by phase slippage through soliton nucleation at a rate that increases in the chaotic regime. Different from a superfluid in a closed setup, this driven dissipative superfluid is not destroyed by the proliferation of solitons since kinetic energy is removed through cavity losses.

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  • Received 3 August 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.163601

© 2015 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsAtomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

Francesco Piazza* and Helmut Ritsch

  • Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria

  • *Corresponding author. francesco.piazza@uibk.ac.at

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Issue

Vol. 115, Iss. 16 — 16 October 2015

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