arXiv:0803.1406 · Physical Review Letters
Single-Particle Tunneling in Strongly Driven Double-Well Potentials
E. Kierig, U. Schnorrberger, A. Schietinger, Jiří Tomkovič, Markus K Oberthaler
Abstract
We report on the first direct observation of coherent control of single-particle tunneling in a strongly driven double-well potential. In our setup atoms propagate in a periodic arrangement of double wells allowing the full control of the driving parameters such as frequency, amplitude, and even the space-time symmetry. Our experimental findings are in quantitative agreement with the predictions of the corresponding Floquet theory and are also compared to the predictions of a simple two mode model. Our experiments reveal directly the critical dependence of coherent destruction of tunneling on the generalized parity symmetry.