Josephson oscillation of a superfluid Fermi gas

Jun Tokimoto, Shunji Tsuchiya, Tetsuro Nikuni

Jun Tokimoto, Shunji Tsuchiya, Tetsuro Nikuni

Sadhan K. Adhikari

Using the complete numerical solution of a time-dependent three-dimensional mean-field model we study the Josephson oscillation of a superfluid Fermi gas (SFG) at zero temperature formed in a combined axially-symmetric harmonic plus one-dimensional periodic optical-lattice (OL) potentials after displacing the harmonic trap along the axial OL axis. We study the dependence of Josephson frequency on the strength of the OL potential. The Josephson frequency decreases with increasing strength as found in the experiment of Cataliotti et al. [Science 293, 843 (2001)] for a Bose-Einstein condensate and of the experiment of Pezzè et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 120401 (2004)] for an ideal Fermi gas. We demonstrate a breakdown of Josephson oscillation in the SFG for a large displacement of the harmonic trap. These features of Josephson oscillation of a SFG can be tested experimentally.

T. Kebukawa, Shosuke Sasaki

Giuliano Orso, Лев П. Питаевский, S. Stringari

Starting from the Boltzmann equation, we study the center-of-mass oscillation of a harmonically trapped normal Fermi gas in the presence of a one-dimensional periodic potential. We show that for values of the Fermi energy above the first Bloch band the center of mass motion is overdamped in the collisional regime due to umklapp processes. This should be contrasted with the behavior of a superfluid where one instead expects the occurrence of persistent Josephson-like oscillations.

M.P. Kemoklidze, Лев П. Питаевский