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arXiv:quant-ph/0601012 · Journal of Modern Optics

Two-mode theory of BEC interferometry

Bryan J. Dalton

Published Mar 20, 2007• 13 citations
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Abstract

A theory of BEC interferometry in an unsymmetrical double-well trap has been developed for small boson numbers, based on the two-mode approximation. The bosons are initially in the lowest mode of a single well trap, which is split into a double well and then recombined. Possible fragmentations into separate BEC states in each well during the splitting/recombination process are allowed for. The BEC is treated as a giant spin system, the fragmented states are eigenstates of S 2 and Sz . Self-consistent sets of equations for the amplitudes of the fragmented states and for the two single boson mode functions are obtained. The latter are coupled Gross–Pitaevskii equations. Interferometric effects may be measured via boson numbers in the first excited mode.

DOI
10.1080/09500340600677682

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A theory of BEC interferometry in an unsymmetrical double-well trap has been developed for small boson numbers, based on the two-mode approximation. The bosons are initially in the lowest mode of a single well trap, which is split into a double well and then recombined. Possible fragmentations into separate BEC states in each well during the splitting/recombination process are allowed for. The BEC is treated as a giant spin system, the fragmented states are eigenstates of S 2 and Sz . Self-consistent sets of equations for the amplitudes of the fragmented states and for the two single boson mode functions are obtained. The latter are coupled Gross–Pitaevskii equations. Interferometric effects may be measured via boson numbers in the first excited mode.
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 two-site version of the Bose-Hubbard model can be used as a simplified model of N bosons confined to two quantum wells. We study the behavior of low-temperature Bose-Einstein condensates as a function of the strength of the repulsive interactions between the bosons and of the size of the quantum-mechanical tunneling between the quantum wells. The ground-state of weakly interacting bosons tends to be one in which almost all particles are in the same quantum-mechanical state (‘Bose-Einstein Condensate’, or ‘BEC’). It is found that even very small amounts of interwell tunneling lead to a BEC, but that zero tunneling leads to two separate BECs, one in each well (‘fragmentation’). We study systematically the transition between a single BEC comprised of bosons in both wells, and a fragmented condensate consisting of two BECs, one for each well. Our analysis will use matrix computational methods to solve the Schrödinger equation of the two-well boson system, and obtain the energies and wavefunctions as eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian matrix. We will compare the results obtained with previous analyses, and against analytical approximations developed for the limiting case of a large number of bosons (large N).
The dynamics of quantum fluctuations of weakly coupled Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) can be described by an effective Bose–Josephson Hamiltonian. By requiring that the mean-field approximation on this effective Hamiltonian reproduces the low energy dynamics of the Gross–Pitaevskii equation, we obtain parameters for the effective Hamiltonian. This approach is particularly suitable when the BECs are in the Thomas–Fermi regime. Considering the problem of the splitting of a trapped BEC into two BEC fragments, our results for the dynamics of the depletion, collapses and revivals of the phase coherence are in good agreement with a recent numerical microscopic calculation from Streltsov et al (2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 99 030402). In addition, the excitation energy of the lowest symmetric mode, which is the first relevant mode for the symmetric splitting process, is reproduced with reasonable accuracy all the way from the mean-field Josephson regime to the Fock regime.
We apply the concepts of nonlinear guided-wave optics to a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in an external potential. As an example, we consider a parabolic double-well potential and derive coupled-mode equations for the complex amplitudes of the BEC macroscopic collective modes. Our equations describe different regimes of the condensate dynamics, including the nonlinear Josephson effect for any separation between the wells. We demonstrate macroscopic self-trapping for both repulsive and attractive interactions, and confirm our results by direct numerical solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii-equation.
Interferometry with trapped atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) requires the development of techniques to recombine the two paths of the interferometer and map the accumulated phase difference to a measurable atom number difference. We have implemented and compared two recombining procedures in a double-well-based BEC interferometer. The first procedure utilizes the bosonic Josephson effect and controlled tunneling of atoms through the potential barrier, similar to laser light in an optical fiber coupler. The second one relies on the interference of the reflected and transmitted parts of the BEC wave function when impinging on the potential barrier, analogous to light impinging on a half-silvered mirror. Both schemes were implemented successfully, yielding an interferometric contrast of $\ensuremath{\sim}20$% and 42% respectively. Building efficient matter-wave recombiners represents an important step towards the coherent manipulation of external quantum superposition states of BECs.
We develop the Fock-space many-body quantum approach for large number of bosons, when the bosons occupy significantly only few modes. The approach is based on an analogy with the dynamics of a single particle of either positive or negative mass in a quantum potential, where the inverse number of bosons plays the role of Planck constant. As application of the method we consider the Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well trap. The ground state of positive mass particle corresponds to the mean-field fixed point of lower energy, while that of negative mass to the excited fixed point. In the case of attractive BEC above the threshold for symmetry breaking, the ground state is a cat state and we relate this fact to the double-well shape of the quantum potential for the positive mass quantum particle. The tunneling energy splitting between the local Fock states of the cat state is shown to be extremely small for the nonlinearity parameter just above the critical value and exponentially decreasing with the number of atoms. In the repulsive case, the phase locked (πππ-phase) macroscopic quantum self-trapping of BEC is related to the double-well structure of the potential for the negative mass quantum particle. We also analyze the running phase macroscopic quantum self-trapping state and show that it is subject to quantum collapses and revivals. Moreover, the quantum dynamics just before the first collapse of the running phase shows exponential growth of dispersion of the quantum phase distribution which may explain the growth of the phase fluctuations seen in the experiment on the macroscopic quantum self-trapping.