Time-Resolved Measurement of Landau-Zener Tunneling in Periodic Potentials

Year: 2009

Authors: Zenesini A., Lignier H., Tayebirad G., Radogostowicz J., Ciampini D., Mannella R., Wimberger S., Morsch O., Arimondo E.

Autors Affiliation: CNR-INFM and Dipartimento di Fisica “E. Fermi,” Largo Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa, Italy;
CNISM, Unità di Pisa, Largo Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa, Italy;
Institut für theoretische Physik, Universität Heidelberg, D-69120, Heidelberg, Germany

Abstract: We report time-resolved measurements of Landau-Zener tunneling of Bose-Einstein condensates in accelerated optical lattices, clearly resolving the steplike time dependence of the band populations. Using different experimental protocols we were able to measure the tunneling probability both in the adiabatic and in the diabatic bases of the system. We also experimentally determine the contribution of the momentum width of the Bose condensates to the temporal width of the tunneling steps and discuss the implications for measuring the jump time in the Landau-Zener problem.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

Volume: 103 (9)      Pages from: 090403  to: 090403

More Information: We gratefully acknowledge funding by the EU project \”NAMEQUAM\”, the CNISM \”Progetto Innesco 2007\” and the Excellence Initiative by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Heidelberg Graduate School of Fundamental Physics ( Grant No. GSC 129/1) and the Global Networks Mobility Measures. We thank M. Holthaus and T. Esslinger for discussions and comments on the manuscript.
KeyWords: Landau-Zener tunneling; Bose-Einstein condensation; optical lattices; traversal time; atoms
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.090403

Citations: 110
data from “WEB OF SCIENCE” (of Thomson Reuters) are update at: 2024-11-17
References taken from IsiWeb of Knowledge: (subscribers only)
Connecting to view paper tab on IsiWeb: Click here
Connecting to view citations from IsiWeb: Click here