Dissertation
Quantum Hydrodynamics in One- and Two-Component Bose-Einstein Condensates
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2013
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/4926
Abstract
Several prototypical experiments concerning quantum hydrodynamics are realized in this thesis using one and two-component Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). The experiments are conducted with an experimental apparatus built at WSU that is capable of reliably producing 87Rb BECs and 40K degenerate Fermi gases (DFGs). The apparatus, which has undergone many modifications and upgrades since it was first built, will be described in detail. The upgrades include the addition of fermionic potassium atoms, installation of a fully electromagnetic Ioffe-Pritchard type trap with excellent optical access to the BEC, and the addition of an optical dipole trap (and optical lattices).
In the first set of experiments, I describe studies in which the dynamics of merging and splitting single component BECs lead to the observation of dispersive shock waves and soliton formation. In splitting a BEC, the transition from sound wave excitations to dispersive shock formation is examined. Motivated by our single component BEC experiments, we go on to study superfluid-superfluid counterflow using BECs containing two different hyperfine states. Surprisingly rich dynamics are observed for counterflow speeds exceeding a critical velocity. Above this critical velocity, a counterflow-induced modulational instability sets in and drives excitations in the form of dark-bright solitons and novel oscillating dark-dark solitons, which have previously been theoretically described (e.g. in the context of nonlinear optics), but never before been observed in
the laboratory.
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Details
- Title
- Quantum Hydrodynamics in One- and Two-Component Bose-Einstein Condensates
- Creators
- JiaJia Chang
- Contributors
- Peter Engels (Advisor)Doerte Blume (Committee Member)Fred Gittes (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 138
- Identifiers
- 99900581649501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation