Physical Review A

Observation of atomic tunneling from an accelerating optical potential

C. F. Bharucha, Kirk W. Madison, Patrick R. Morrow, Steven R. Wilkinson, Bala Sundaram, Mark G. Raizen

Published Feb 1, 1997• 118 citations

Abstract

We observe quantum tunneling of cold sodium atoms from an accelerating one-dimensional standing wave of light. Atoms are trapped in a far-detuned standing wave that is accelerated for a controlled duration. For sufficiently large values of the acceleration, we observe an exponential decay in the number of atoms that remain trapped as a function of the interaction time. We show that this loss is due to quantum tunneling, and compare the decay rates with Landau-Zener theory. We also observe oscillations in the tunneling rate as a function of the acceleration which are due to quantum interference effects.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.55.r857

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