Coupled matter–wave solitons in optical lattices

Abstract

We make use of a potential model to study the dynamics of two coupled matter–wave or Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) solitons loaded in optical lattices. With separate attention to linear and nonlinear lattices we find some remarkable differences for response of the system to effects of these lattices. As opposed to the case of linear optical lattice ( LOL ) , the nonlinear lattice ( NOL ) can be used to control the mutual interaction between the two solitons. For a given lattice wave number k, the effective potentials in which the two solitons move are such that the well ( V eff ( NOL ) ) , resulting from the juxtaposition of soliton interaction and nonlinear lattice potential, is deeper than the corresponding well V eff ( LOL ) . But these effective potentials have opposite k dependence in the sense that the depth of V eff ( LOL ) increases as k increases and that of V eff ( NOL ) decreases for higher k values. We verify that the effectiveness of optical lattices to regulate the motion of the coupled solitons depends sensitively on the initial locations of the motionless solitons as well as values of the lattice wave number. For both LOL and NOL the two solitons meet each other due to mutual interaction if their initial locations are taken within the potential wells with the difference that the solitons in the NOL approach each other rather rapidly and take roughly half the time to meet as compared with the time needed for such coalescence in the LOL. In the NOL, the soliton profiles can move freely and respond to the lattice periodicity when the separation between their initial locations are as twice as that needed for a similar free movement in the LOL. We observe that, in both cases, slow tuning of the optical lattices by varying k with respect to a time parameter τ drags the oscillatory solitons apart to take them to different locations. In our potential model the oscillatory solitons appear to propagate undistorted. But a fully numerical calculation indicates that during evolution they exhibit decay and revival.