Weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate in a disordered optical potential

ORAL

Abstract

We report on experimental progress in studying the behavior of a nearly noninteracting Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of $^7$Li atoms in a tunable disordered optical potential generated by laser speckle. We investigate the previously unexplored regime where the characteristic length scale of the disorder potential is shorter than the healing length, $\xi$, of the BEC. We increase $\xi$ by using a Feshbach resonance to tune the $s$-wave scattering length of the atoms to nearly zero (specifically, less than the Bohr radius). Under these conditions new phenomena, such as Anderson localization, are predicted.

*Supported by NSF, ONR, NASA and the Welch Foundation

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Authors

  • T.A. Corcovilos

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and Rice Quantum Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005

  • D. Dries

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and Rice Quantum Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005

  • J. Hitchcock

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and Rice Quantum Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005

  • M. Junker

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and Rice Quantum Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005

  • Y.P. Chen

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and Rice Quantum Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005

  • R.G. Hulet

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and Rice Quantum Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005