Modulational instability of two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice

We study modulational instability of two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice, which is modeled as a coupled discrete nonlinear Schrödinger (DNLS) equation. The excitation spectrum and the modulational instability condition of the total system are presented analytically. In the long-wavelength limit, our results agree with the homogeneous two-component Bose-Einstein condensates case. The discreteness effects result in the appearance of the modulational instability for the condensates in miscible region. The numerical calculations confirm our analytical results and show that the interspecies coupling can transfer the instability from one component to another.