| Literature DB >> 28644648 |
G Spagnolli1, G Semeghini1, L Masi2, G Ferioli2, A Trenkwalder1, S Coop2,3, M Landini1, L Pezzè1,2,4, G Modugno2, M Inguscio1,2, A Smerzi1,2,4, M Fattori1,2.
Abstract
We explore the interplay between tunneling and interatomic interactions in the dynamics of a bosonic Josephson junction. We tune the scattering length of an atomic ^{39}K Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a double-well trap to investigate regimes inaccessible to other superconducting or superfluid systems. In the limit of small-amplitude oscillations, we study the transition from Rabi to plasma oscillations by crossing over from attractive to repulsive interatomic interactions. We observe a critical slowing down in the oscillation frequency by increasing the strength of an attractive interaction up to the point of a quantum phase transition. With sufficiently large initial oscillation amplitude and repulsive interactions, the system enters the macroscopic quantum self-trapping regime, where we observe coherent undamped oscillations with a self-sustained average imbalance of the relative well population. The exquisite agreement between theory and experiments enables the observation of a broad range of many body coherent dynamical regimes driven by tunable tunneling energy, interactions and external forces, with applications spanning from atomtronics to quantum metrology.Entities:
Year: 2017 PMID: 28644648 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.230403
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Phys Rev Lett ISSN: 0031-9007 Impact factor: 9.161