Stability of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-dimensional lattice

Abstract

We show that in contrast with contact interacting gases, an optical lattice changes drastically the stability properties of a dipolar condensate, inducing a crossover from dipolar destabilization to dipolar stabilization for increasing lattice depths. Performing stability measurements on a ${}^{52}$Cr Bose-Einstein condensate in an interaction-dominated regime, repulsive dipolar interaction balances negative scattering lengths down to $\ensuremath{-}17$ Bohr radii. Our findings are in excellent agreement with mean-field calculations, revealing the important destabilizing role played by intersite dipolar interactions in deep lattices.