Time-resolved measurement of Landau-Zener tunneling in different bases
Year: 2010
Authors: Tayebirad G., Zenesini A., Ciampini D., Mannella R., Morsch O., Arimondo E., Lorch N., Wimberger S.
Autors Affiliation: Heidelberg Univ, Inst Theoret Phys, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany; Univ Innsbruck, Inst Expt Phys, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria; Univ Pisa, CNISM, Dipartimento Fis, I-56127 Pisa, Italy; Univ Pisa, CNR, Dipartimento Fis, Ist Nazl Ott, I-56127 Pisa, Italy
Abstract: A comprehensive study of the tunneling dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a tilted periodic potential is presented. We report numerical and experimental results on time-resolved measurements of the Landau-Zener tunneling of ultracold atoms introduced by the tilt, which experimentally is realized by accelerating the lattice. The use of different protocols enables us to access the tunneling probability, numerically as well as experimentally, in two different bases, namely, the adiabatic basis and the diabatic basis. The adiabatic basis corresponds to the eigenstates of the lattice, and the diabatic one to the free-particle momentum eigenstates. Our numerical and experimental results are compared with existing two-state Landau-Zener models.
Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW A
Volume: 82(1) Pages from: 013633-1 to: 013633-8
KeyWords: BLOCH OSCILLATIONS; OPTICAL LATTICES; ATOMS; DYNAMICS; SUPERLATTICES; INTERFERENCE; TRANSITIONS; BREAKDOWN; MODELDOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.82.013633