19 research outputs found
Spinor BECs in a double-well: population transfer and Josephson oscillations
The dynamics of an F=1 spinor condensate in a two-well potential is studied
within the framework of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We derive two-mode
equations relating the population imbalances, the phase differences among the
condensates at each side of the barrier and the time evolution of the different
Zeeman populations for the case of small population imbalances. The case of
zero total magnetization is scrutinized in this limit demonstrating the ability
of a two mode analysis to describe to a large extent the dynamics observed in
the Gross-Pitaevskii equations. It is also demonstrated that the time evolution
of the different total populations fully decouples from the Josephson tunneling
phenomena. All the relevant time scales are clearly identified with microscopic
properties of the atom-atom interactions
Dynamic generation of spin-squeezed states in bosonic Josephson junctions
We analyze the formation of squeezed states in a condensate of ultracold
bosonic atoms confined by a double-well potential. The emphasis is set on the
dynamical formation of such states from initially coherent many-body quantum
states. Two cases are described: the squeezing formation in the evolution of
the system around the stable point, and in the short time evolution in the
vicinity of an unstable point. The latter is shown to produce highly squeezed
states on very short times. On the basis of a semiclassical approximation to
the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian, we are able to predict the amount of squeezing,
its scaling with and the speed of coherent spin formation with simple
analytical formulas which successfully describe the numerical Bose-Hubbard
results. This new method of producing highly squeezed spin states in systems of
ultracold atoms is compared to other standard methods in the literature.Comment: 12 pages, revised discussion + added reference
Spin-driven spatial symmetry breaking of spinor condensates in a double-well
The properties of an F=1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a
double-well potential are discussed using both a mean-field two-mode approach
and a simplified two-site Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian. We focus in the region of
phase space in which spin effects lead to a symmetry breaking of the system,
favoring the spatial localization of the condensate in one well. To model this
transition we derive, using perturbation theory, an effective Hamiltonian that
describes N/2 spin singlets confined in a double-well potential.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
Self-trapping of a binary Bose-Einstein condensate induced by interspecies interaction
The problem of self-trapping of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and a binary
BEC in an optical lattice (OL) and double well (DW) is studied using the
mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii equation. For both DW and OL, permanent
self-trapping occurs in a window of the repulsive nonlinearity of the GP
equation: . In case of OL, the critical nonlinearities
and correspond to a window of chemical potentials
defining the band gap(s) of the periodic OL. The
permanent self-trapped BEC in an OL usually represents a breathing oscillation
of a stable stationary gap soliton. The permanent self-trapped BEC in a DW, on
the other hand, is a dynamically stabilized state without any stationary
counterpart. For a binary BEC with intraspecies nonlinearities outside this
window of nonlinearity, a permanent self trapping can be induced by tuning the
interspecies interaction such that the effective nonlinearities of the
components fall in the above window
A dipolar self-induced bosonic Josephson junction
We propose a new scheme for observing Josephson oscillations and macroscopic
quantum self-trapping phenomena in a toroidally confined Bose-Einstein
condensate: a dipolar self-induced Josephson junction. Polarizing the atoms
perpendicularly to the trap symmetry axis, an effective ring-shaped,
double-well potential is achieved which is induced by the dipolar interaction.
By numerically solving the three-dimensional time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii
equation we show that coherent tunneling phenomena such as Josephson
oscillations and quantum self-trapping can take place. The dynamics in the
self-induced junction can be qualitatively described by a two-mode model taking
into account both s-wave and dipolar interactions.Comment: Major changes. Accepted for publication in EP
Weakly linked binary mixtures of F = 1 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensates
We present a study of binary mixtures of Bose-Einstein condensates confined in a double-well potential within the framework of the mean field Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation. We re-examine both the single component and the binary mixture cases for such a potential, and we investigate what are the situations in which a simpler two-mode approach leads to an accurate description of their dynamics. We also estimate the validity of the most usual dimensionality reductions used to solve the GP equations. To this end, we compare both the semi-analytical two-mode approaches and the numerical simulations of the one-dimensional (1D) reductions with the full 3D numerical solutions of the GP equation. Our analysis provides a guide to clarify the validity of several simplified models that describe mean-field nonlinear dynamics, using an experimentally feasible binary mixture of an F = 1 spinor condensate with two of its Zeeman manifolds populated, m = ±1