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Coherence, Interference, and the Josephson Effect

Лев П. Питаевский, S. Stringari

Published Jan 1, 2016• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses several phenomena related to the coherence of trapped Bose–Einstein condensates. These include the long-range behaviour of the one-body density matrix and the interference fringes exhibited by two expanding condensates overlapping in space. Interference patterns in the momentum distribution are also discussed. A special section is devoted to the Josephson oscillations in the double-well potential, including the plasma oscillation and self-trapping phenomena. The procedures required to quantize the Josephson Hamiltonian, the phenomena of decoherence and fluctuations of the phase, and the derivation of the Bose–Hubbard model in the problem of the double well, are also discussed.

DOI
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198758884.003.0015

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Abstract This chapter discusses several phenomena related to the coherence of trapped Bose–Einstein condensates. These include the long-range behaviour of the one-body density matrix and the interference fringes exhibited by two expanding condensates overlapping in space. Interference patterns in the momentum distribution are also discussed. A special section is devoted to the Josephson oscillations in the double-well potential, including the plasma oscillation and self-trapping phenomena. The procedures required to quantize the Josephson Hamiltonian, the phenomena of decoherence and fluctuations of the phase, and the derivation of the Bose–Hubbard model in the problem of the double well, are also discussed.
This topical review provides an overview of the key theoretical features of Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) in cold atomic gases at near zero temperature in the situation where all the bosons occupy at most two single particle states or modes. This situation applies to single-component BECs in double well trap potentials and to two-component BEC in single well trap potentials, such as occur when BEC are used in interferometry experiments. The Hamiltonian is introduced in terms of field operators and mode expansions are restricted to a total of two modes. Spin operators and their eigenstates are introduced as the fundamental basis states for describing the two-mode N boson quantum system. The spin states have a macroscopic angular momentum quantum number of N/2 and the magnetic quantum number k specifies the relative number of bosons in the two modes. The treatment presented involves an extensive use of angular momentum theory, including unitary rotation operators. Important states of the two-mode system such as binomial or coherent states, relative phase eigenstates are discussed. Boson position measurements are specified via quantum correlation functions, and the use of these functions in describing coherence properties, interference patterns and fragmentation effects in BECs is presented. The Bloch vector is defined and related to the quantum correlation functions, with quantum fluctuations of the Bloch vector being treated in terms of the covariance matrix. Applications to important two-mode states are made. Spin squeezing is discussed. Based on applying variational principles, the general dynamical behaviour of the two-mode BEC is determined via generalised Gross–Pitaevskii equations for the modes and matrix mechanics equations for the probability amplitudes of the relative number basis states, the mode and amplitude equations being coupled and self-consistent. The single mode equations are also presented. The Hamiltonian is written in terms of the spin operators and the Josephson Hamiltonian obtained as a simplification in which the dynamical behaviour of the mode functions is ignored – for the one-component case the mode functions are also required to be localised and separate. Coefficients in the Josephson Hamiltonian describe tunneling/intercomponent coupling, asymmetry and collisions and these are defined via integrals involving the mode functions. The Josephson model involves using the Josephson Hamiltonian to give simple predictions of the energy states and dynamical behaviour of the two-mode system, dynamical effects on the mode functions being ignored. The three regimes – Rabi, Josephson and Fock are described, and the energy states obtained for the Fock and Rabi regimes. Dynamical behaviour treatments based on the Josephson model are outlined. In the situation where all bosons are in the same single particle state, semi-classical Bloch equations are derived and their solutions given in terms of elliptic functions. The quantum regime is treated using matrix mechanics equations for the probability amplitudes. Two representative applications of the Josephson model dynamics are treated, with graphs showing the results of numerical work being displayed. The first is in describing Heisenberg limited BEC interferometry for a single-component BEC in a double well, the treatment showing collapses and revivals in the probability distribution for the relative phase. The second treats Ramsey interferometry for a two-component BEC in a single well, the study revealing that oscillations of the Bloch vector collapse and revive, with the Bloch vector's departure from the Bloch sphere during the collapse period revealing that the BEC has fragmented. In both cases collisions cause the dephasing effects that result in the collapse, revival phenomena. The review ends with a brief outline of phase space and other approaches that extend the treatment beyond the two-mode theory, enabling decoherence effects associated with bosons in non-condensate modes to be studied. A summary of the review contents is included. Detailed mathematical derivations are included in several appendices, available as online supplementary material.
The quantum description of a Bose-Einstein condensates in double-well traps connected by a Josephson junction is discussed. The quantization in terms of the number and phase canonically-conjugated operators gives correct energy levels, but results in finite phase fluctuations in the absence of interaction. This seems to contradict the perfect coherence of a system of non-interacting particles. The problem can be solved by calculating the observables that characterize the coherence properties of a system, as, for example, the momentum distribution. It occurs that the visibility of interference fringes depends both on the fluctuations of the phase and the number of atoms. The visibility is calculated in the limit of small interaction and the results exhibit the correct behavior. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Bose–Einstein condensates of particles behave in many ways like coherent radiation fields, and the realization of Bose–Einstein condensation in dilute gases has opened up the experimental study of interactions between coherent matter waves. In addition, the existence of these dilute trapped quantum gases has prompted a re-examination of a number of theoretical issues. In Sec. 13.1 we discuss Josephson tunnelling of a condensate between two wells and the role of fluctuations in particle number and phase. The number and phase variables play a key role in the description of the classic interference experiment, in which two clouds of atoms are allowed to expand and overlap (Sec. 13.2). Rather surprisingly, an interference pattern is produced even though initially the two clouds are completely isolated. Density fluctuations in a Bose gas are studied in Sec. 13.3, where we relate atomic clock shifts to the two-particle correlation function. The ability to manipulate gaseous Bose–Einstein condensates by lasers has made possible the study of coherent matter wave optics and in Sec. 13.4 we describe applications of these techniques to observe solitons, Bragg scattering, and non-linear mixing of matter waves. How to characterize Bose–Einstein condensation in terms of the density matrix is the subject of Sec. 13.5, where we also consider fragmented condensates.
Interference between two freely expanding Bose-Einstein condensates has been observed. Two condensates separated by approximately 40 micrometers were created by evaporatively cooling sodium atoms in a double-well potential formed by magnetic and optical forces. High-contrast matter-wave interference fringes with a period of approximately 15 micrometers were observed after switching off the potential and letting the condensates expand for 40 milliseconds and overlap. This demonstrates that Bose condensed atoms are "laser-like"; that is, they are coherent and show long-range correlations. These results have direct implications for the atom laser and the Josephson effect for atoms.
The quantum and thermal fluctuations of the phase are investigated in a cold Bose gas confined by a double well trap. The coherence of the system is discussed in terms of the visibility of interference fringes in both momentum and coordinate space. The visibility is calculated at zero as well as at finite temperature. The thermal fluctuations are shown to affect significantly the transition from the coherent to the incoherent regime even at very low temperatures. The coherence of an array of multiple condensates is also discussed.
We investigate the coherent dynamics of a Bose–Einstein condensate in a double well, subject to a density-dependent gauge potential. Further, we derive the nonlinear Josephson equations that allow us to understand the many-body system in terms of a classical Hamiltonian that describes the motion of a nonrigid pendulum with an initial angular offset. Finally we analyse the phase-space trajectories of the system, and describe how the self-trapping is affected by the presence of an interacting gauge potential.