Atom interferometry with Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential

A trapped-atom interferometer was demonstrated using gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates coherently split by deforming an optical single-well potential into a double-well potential. The relative phase between the two condensates was determined from the spatial phase of the matter wave interference pattern formed upon releasing the condensates from the separated potential wells. Coherent phase evolution was observed for condensates held separated by 13 microm for up to 5 ms and was controlled by applying ac Stark shift potentials to either of the two separated condensates.     

Collision dynamics of two Bose–Einstein condensates in the presence of Raman coupling

A collision of two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in the presence of Raman coupling is proposed and studied by numerical simulations. Raman transitions are found to be able to reduce collision-produced irregular excitations by forming a time-averaged attractive optical potential. Raman transitions also support a kind of dark soliton pair in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates. Soliton pairs and their remnant single solitons are shown to be controllable by adjusting the initial relative phase between the two colliding condensates or the two-photon detuning of Raman transitions. Received: 5 February 2001 / Published online: 27 April 2001     

Self-Trapping of Two Bose-Einstein Condensates with a Coupling Drive

We present an approximate analytical solution to the population imbalance of two-component Bose-Einstein condensate with the coupling drive. The dependence of the time evolution of self-trapping upon the radio frequency wave, the Rabi coupling frequency, the initial atom number and relative phase between two condensates are investigated. The lower radio frequency wave, the same atom number and initial relative phase between condensates are beneficial to observe the self-trapping.     

Uniting Bose-Einstein condensates in optical resonators

The relative phase of two initially independent Bose-Einstein condensates can be laser cooled to unite the two condensates by putting them into a ring cavity and coupling them with an internal Josephson junction. First, we show that this phase cooling process already appears within a semiclassical model. We calculate the stationary states, find regions of bistable behavior, and suggest a Ramsey-type experiment to measure the buildup of phase coherence between the condensates. We also study quantum effects and imperfections of the system.     

A Novel Design of Grating Couplers for Efficient Broadband Coupling between Silicon-on-Insulator Nanophotonic Waveguides and Fibres

A novel design of out-of-plane grating couplers is proposed for coupling between silicon-on-insulator nanophotonic waveguides and single-mode fibres. The coupler with the first-order diffraction coupling to the optical fibre is actually a second-order reflected grating with two times of period of the first-order grating. To enhance outcoupled power, a back hole is designed to form in the silicon substrate and a kind of metals is placed on the top acting as a reflection layer. The coupler is optimized using coupled-mode-based simulations, showing that the coupling efficiency to and from tapered optical fibre can be as high as 85% with 1dB bandwidth about 23 nm.     

Long phase coherence time and number squeezing of two Bose-Einstein condensates on an atom chip

We measure the relative phase of two Bose-Einstein condensates confined in a radio frequency induced double-well potential on an atom chip. We observe phase coherence between the separated condensates for times up to approximately 200 ms after splitting, a factor of 10 longer than the phase diffusion time expected for a coherent state for our experimental conditions. The enhanced coherence time is attributed to number squeezing of the initial state by a factor of 10. In addition, we demonstrate a rotationally sensitive (Sagnac) geometry for a guided atom interferometer by propagating the split condensates.     

Vortex-pair states in spin-orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates with coherent coupling

Three types of vortex-pair are identified in two-component Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC) of different kinds of spin-orbit coupling. One type holds the two vortices in one component of the twocomponent condensates. Both the other two types hold a vortex in each component of the twocomponent condensates, and exhibit meron-pair textures that have either null or unit topological charge, respectively. The cores of the two vortices are connected by a string of the relative phase jump. These vortex pairs can be generated from a vortex-free wave packet by incorporating different non- Abelian gauge field into the BEC. When a Rabi coupling is introduced, the distance between the two cores is effectively controlled by the Rabi coupling strength and a transition of vortex configurations is observed.     

Quantum optics with surface plasmons

We describe a technique that enables strong, coherent coupling between individual optical emitters and guided plasmon excitations in conducting nanostructures at optical frequencies. We show that under realistic conditions optical emission can be almost entirely directed into the plasmon modes. As an example, we describe an application of this technique involving efficient generation of single photons on demand, in which the plasmon is efficiently outcoupled to a dielectric waveguide.     

Efficient input and output fiber coupling to a photonic crystal waveguide

The efficiency of evanescent coupling between a silica optical fiber taper and a silicon photonic crystal waveguide is studied. A high-reflectivity mirror on the end of the photonic crystal waveguide is used to recollect, in the backward-propagating fiber mode, the optical power that is initially coupled into the photonic crystal waveguide. An outcoupled power in the backward-propagating fiber mode of 88% of the input power is measured, corresponding to a lower bound on the coupler efficiency of 94%.     

Spinor F=1 Bose–Einstein condensates loaded in two types of radially-periodic potentials with spin–orbit coupling

We consider two-dimensional spinor F = 1 Bose–Einstein condensates in two types of radially-periodic potentials with spin–orbit coupling, i.e., spin-independent and spin-dependent radially-periodic potentials. For the Bose–Einstein condensates in a spin-independent radially-periodic potential, the density of each component exhibits the periodic density modulation along the azimuthal direction, which realizes the necklacelike state in the ferromagnetic Bose–Einstein condensates. As the spin-exchange interaction increases, the necklacelike state gradually transition to the plane wave phase for the antiferromagnetic Bose–Einstein condensates with larger spin–orbit coupling. The competition of the spin-dependent radially-periodic potential, spin–orbit coupling, and spin-exchange interaction gives rise to the exotic ground-state phases when the Bose–Einstein condensates in a spin-dependent radially-periodic potential.     

Phase-sensitive recombination of two bose-einstein condensates on an atom chip

The recombination of two split Bose-Einstein condensates on an atom chip is shown to result in heating which depends on the relative phase of the two condensates. This heating reduces the number of condensate atoms between 10% and 40% and provides a robust way to read out the phase of an atom interferometer without the need for ballistic expansion. The heating may be caused by the dissipation of dark solitons created during the merging of the condensates.     

Disorder-induced order in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates

We propose and analyze a general mechanism of disorder-induced order in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates, analogous to corresponding effects established for XY spin models. We show that a random Raman coupling induces a relative phase of pi/2 between the two BECs and that the effect is robust. We demonstrate it in one, two, and three dimensions at T=0 and present evidence that it persists at small T>0. Applications to phase control in ultracold spinor condensates are discussed.     

Trapped two-dimensional condensates with synthetic spin-orbit coupling

We study trapped 2D atomic Bose-Einstein condensates with spin-independent interactions in the presence of an isotropic spin-orbit coupling, showing that a rich physics results from the nontrivial interplay between spin-orbit coupling, confinement and interatomic interactions. For low interactions two types of half-vortex solutions with different winding occur, whereas strong-enough repulsive interactions result in a stripe-phase similar to that predicted for homogeneous condensates. Intermediate interaction regimes are characterized for large enough spin-orbit coupling by an hexagonally-symmetric phase with a triangular lattice of density minima similar to that observed in rapidly rotating condensates.     

The Atomic Tunneling Current in Two—Species Bose—Einstein Condensates

It is shown that the atomic tunneling current and the Shapiro-like steps strongly depend on the initial number of atoms in each condensate and the initial phase difference between the two condensates which are initially in even(odd) coherent states.The nonlinearity of interatomic interactions in the two condensates may lead to the atomic tunneling current and Shapiro-like step between the two condensates.It is found that the interatomic nonlinear interactions can induce the atomic tunneling current and Shapiro-like step between two condensates even though there does not exist the interspecies Josephson-like tunneling coupling.The static atomic tunneling current flows in positive or negative direction,which depends on the phase difference of the two-species condensates.     

Interferencing in Coupled Bose–Einstein Condensates

We consider an exactly soluble model of two Bose–Einstein condensates with a Josephson-type of coupling. Its equilibrium states are explicitly found showing condensation and spontaneously broken gauge symmetry. It is proved that the total number and total phase fluctuation operators, as well as the relative number and relative current fluctuation operators form both a quantum canonical pair. The exact relation between the relative current and phase fluctuation operators is established. Also the dynamics of these operators is solved showing the collapse and revival phenomenon.     

双色光晶格势阱中玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体的Landau-Zener隧穿行为

考虑玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体局限于周期性的双色光晶格势阱中,研究其中的Bloch能带结构、第一能隙和第二能隙的Landau-Zener隧穿行为.结果表明,随着双色光晶格势阱的主、次晶格相位差从0增加到π,Bloch能带中第一能隙宽度逐渐增加,而第二能隙宽度逐渐减小.同时发现,双色光晶格势阱的主、次晶格深度及其相位差对第一能隙和第二能隙的Landau-Zener隧穿性质有重要的影响.     

Noise thermometry with two weakly coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

Here we report on the experimental investigation of thermally induced fluctuations of the relative phase between two Bose-Einstein condensates which are coupled via tunneling. The experimental control over the coupling strength and the temperature of the thermal background allows for the quantitative analysis of the phase fluctuations. Furthermore, we demonstrate the application of these measurements for thermometry in a regime where standard methods fail. With this we confirm that the heat capacity of an ideal Bose gas deviates from that of a classical gas as predicted by the third law of thermodynamics.     

Quantum coherent tunneling between two atomic-molecular Bose-Einstein condensates

We study the quantum coherent tunneling dynamics of two weakly coupled atomic-molecular Bose-Einstein condensates (AMBEC). A weak link is supposed to be provided by a double-well trap. The regions of parameters where the macroscopic quantum localization of the relative atomic population occurs are revealed. The different dynamical regimes are found depending on the value of nonlinearity, namely, coupled oscillations of population imbalance of atomic and molecular condensate, including irregular oscillations regions, and macroscopic quantum self trapping regimes. Quantum means and quadrature variances are calculated for population of atomic and molecular condensates and the possibility of quadrature squeezing is shown via stochastic simulations within P-positive phase space representation method. Linear tunnel coupling between two AMBEC leads to correlations in quantum statistics.Received: 22 May 2004, Published online: 10 August 2004PACS: 03.75.-b Matter waves - 03.75.Gg Entanglement and decoherence in Bose-Einstein condensates - 03.75.Lm Tunneling, Josephson effect, Bose-Einstein condensates in periodic potentials, solitons, vortices and topological excitations - 05.30.Jp Boson systems     

Analytical studies of two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in two-dimensional optical lattices

The two-component Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) trapped in 2D optical lattice potential is studied analytically. A new family of stationary exact solutions of the coupled Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equations with 2D periodic potential are obtained. In particular, the phase diagram of the system in the trigonometric limit is determined analytically according to the nontrivial phase macroscopic wave functions of the condensates.     

Interference of Bose-Einstein condensates and entangled single-atom state in a spin-dependent optical lattice

We present a theoretical model to investigate the interference of an array of Bose-Einstein condensates loaded in a one-dimensional spin-dependent optical lattice, which is based on an assumption that for the atoms in the entangled single-atom state between the internal and the external degrees of freedom each atom interferes only with itself. Our theoretical results agree well with the interference patterns observed in a recent experiment by Mandel et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 010407 (2003)]. In addition, an experimental suggestion of nonuniform phase distribution is proposed to test further our theoretical model and prediction. The present work shows that the entanglement of a single atom is sufficient for the interference of the condensates confined in a spin-dependent optical lattice and this interference is irrelevant with the phases of individual condensates, i.e., this interference arises only between each condensate and itself and there is no interference effect between two arbitrary different condensates.