Chemical-potential standard for atomic Bose-Einstein condensates

When subject to an external time periodic perturbation of frequency $f$, a Josephson-coupled two-state Bose-Einstein condensate responds with a constant chemical potential difference $\Delta\mu=khf$, where $h$ is Planck's constant and $k$ is an integer. We propose an experimental procedure to produce ac-driven atomic Josephson devices that may be used to define a standard of chemical potential. We investigate how to circumvent some of the specific problems derived from the present lack of advanced atom circuit technology. We include the effect of dissipation due to quasiparticles, which is essential to help the system relax towards the exact Shapiro resonance, and set limits to the range of values which the various physical quantities must have in order to achieve a stable and accurate chemical potential difference between the macroscopic condensates.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Effect of the magnetic field orientation on the modulation period of the critical current of ramp-type Josephson junctions

We have investigated the dependence of the critical current I-C on the value and orientation of an externally applied magnetic field H for interface-engineered YBa2Cu3O7-x ramp-type Josephson junctions. The results are compared with measurements of Nb ramp-type junctions with a PdAu interlayer. The I-C versus H dependences are similar to Fraunhofer patterns and their modulation period changes several orders of magnitude with the orientation of the magnetic field. For both junction types, the dependence of the modulation period on the orientation of the magnetic field can be well described by the change of the relevant projection of the junction area and the influence of flux-focusing. Therefore the features of the I-C(H) curves have to be attributed to the ramp geometry and not to specific properties of the superconducting material. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics