Publication

Floquet solitons of matter waves

Abstract

We experimentally study the dynamics of a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate of cesium atoms in a 1D optical lattice with a periodic driving force. After a sudden start of the driving we observe the formation of stable wave packets at the center of the fi rst Brillouin zone (BZ) in momentum space, and we interpret these as Floquet solitons in periodically driven systems. The wave packets become unstable when we add a trapping potential along the lattice direction leading to a redistribution of atoms within the BZ.

Floquet solitons of matter waves