Optical solitons and optical patterns controlled by a moiré lattice potential in a Rydberg atomic gas

We investigate the optical soliton and patterns within a system exhibiting a ladder-type Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency configuration, controlled by a moiré lattice potential. By designing theoretically the optical moiré lattice, we study its localization-delocalization transition and numerically demonstrate the conditions for stable high-dimensional solitons in a commensurate and an incommensurate moiré lattice, respectively. Through modulation instability analysis and numerical simulations, on the one hand, we find that the solitons and vortices exhibit exceptional stability in the self-focusing Kerr nonlinear system. On the other hand, our simulations further reveal the emergence of various extended structures, including polygonal, hexagonal, square, annular, and droplet patterns in self-defocusing Kerr nonlinear system. We also demonstrate various structural phase transitions of the optical patterns by actively manipulating the moiré lattice constant and the strength of nonlinear interactions, resulting in a diverse range of ground-state patterns. Our paper provides a versatile platform for manipulating and controlling light-matter interactions in Rydberg atomic ensembles, opening avenues for future research in designing and controlling complex light structures using Rydberg atomic systems.