Josephson Junction Arrays with Bose-Einstein Condensates
Abstract
We report on the direct observation of an oscillating atomic current in a one-dimensional array of Josephson junctions realized with an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. The array is created by a laser standing-wave, with the condensates trapped in the valleys of the periodic potential and weakly coupled by the inter-well barriers. The coherence of multiple tunneling between adjacent wells is continuously probed by atomic interference. The square of the small-amplitude oscillation frequency is proportional to the microscopic tunneling rate of each condensate through the barriers, and provides a direct measurement of the Josephson critical current as a function of the intermediate barrier heights. Our superfluid array may allow investigation of phenomena so far inaccessible to superconducting Josephson junctions and lays a bridge between the condensate dynamics and the physics of discrete nonlinear media.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0108117,
title = {Josephson Junction Arrays with Bose-Einstein Condensates},
author = {F. S. Cataliotti and S. Burger and C. Fort and P. Maddaloni and F. Minardi and A. Trombettoni and A. Smerzi and M. Inguscio},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0108117},
year = {2009}
}