Quantum Coherent Atomic Tunneling between Two Trapped Bose-Einstein Condensates

Journal Article · Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1997 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.4950· OSTI ID:554402

Smerzi, A; Fantoni, S; Giovanazzi, S ^[1]; Fantoni, S; Shenoy, S R ^[2]

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1. International School of Advanced Studies and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia, via Beirut 2/4, I-34014, Trieste (Italy)
2. International Centre for Theoretical Physics, I-34100, Trieste (Italy)

We study the coherent atomic tunneling between two zero-temperature Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) confined in a double-well magnetic trap. Two Gross-Pitaevskii equations for the self-interacting BEC amplitudes, coupled by a transfer matrix element, describe the dynamics in terms of the interwell phase difference and population imbalance. In addition to the anharmonic generalization of the familiar ac Josephson effect and plasma oscillations occurring in superconductor junctions, the nonlinear BEC tunneling dynamics sustains a self-maintained population imbalance: a novel {open_quotes}macroscopic quantum self-trapping{close_quotes} effect. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}

• OSTI ID: 554402
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 79, Issue 25; Other Information: PBD: Dec 1997
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
ATOMS
TUNNELING
TRAPPING
TRANSFER MATRIX METHOD
POPULATIONS
JOSEPHSON EFFECT
PHASE OSCILLATIONS
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS