Dynamical Control of Matter-Wave Tunneling in Periodic Potentials

H. Lignier, C. Sias, D. Ciampini, Y. Singh, A. Zenesini, O. Morsch, and E. Arimondo
Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 220403 – Published 27 November 2007

Abstract

We report on measurements of dynamical suppression of interwell tunneling of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a strongly driven optical lattice. The strong driving is a sinusoidal shaking of the lattice corresponding to a time-varying linear potential, and the tunneling is measured by letting the BEC freely expand in the lattice. The measured tunneling rate is reduced and, for certain values of the shaking parameter, completely suppressed. Our results are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. Furthermore, we have verified that, in general, the strong shaking does not destroy the phase coherence of the BEC, opening up the possibility of realizing quantum phase transitions by using the shaking strength as the control parameter.

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  • Received 3 July 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.220403

©2007 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

H. Lignier, C. Sias, D. Ciampini, Y. Singh, A. Zenesini, O. Morsch, and E. Arimondo

  • CNR-INFM, Dipartimento di Fisica “E. Fermi,” Università di Pisa, Largo Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa, Italy

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Issue

Vol. 99, Iss. 22 — 30 November 2007

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