Controlled pumping of matter-wave solitons in a one-dimensional optical superlattice

We study the pumping of matter-wave solitons formed in Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) with attractive atomic interactions that are loaded into optical superlattices in which one of the lattices is moving with respect to the other. We find that solitons exhibit the remarkably similar pumping properties in both shallow and deep lattices, and that for exactly the same soliton initially excited, switching between integer (fractional) pumping and trapping can be achieved by simply adjusting the lattice parameters. In addition, we find that the gap solitons, which bifurcate from the lowest energy band in a semi-infinite band gap, also exhibit this lattice-parameter-dependent pumping and trapping. The treatment of solitons as classical particles with effective centre-of-mass equations of motion provides a good description of this parameter-dependent integer (fractional) pumping and trapping of solitons.