Experimental study of the transport of coherent interacting matter-waves in a 1D random potential induced by laser speckle

Abstract

We present a detailed analysis of the 1D expansion of a coherent interacting matterwave (a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC)) in the presence of disorder. A 1D random potential is created via laser speckle patterns. It is carefully calibrated and the self-averaging properties of our experimental system are discussed. We observe the suppression of the transport of the BEC in the random potential. We discuss the scenario of disorder-induced trapping taking into account the radial extension in our experimental 3D BEC and we compare our experimental results with the theoretical predictions. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.