Superfluid current disruption in a chain of weakly coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates
Abstract
We report the experimental observation of the disruption of the superfluid atomic current flowing through an array of weakly linked Bose-Einstein condensates. The condensates are trapped in an optical lattice superimposed on a harmonic magnetic potential. The dynamical response of the system to a change of the magnetic potential minimum along the optical lattice axis goes from a coherent oscillation (superfluid regime) to a localization of the condensates in the harmonic trap ("classical" insulator regime). The localization occurs when the initial displacement is larger than a critical value or, equivalently, when the velocity of the wavepacket's center of mass is larger than a critical velocity dependent on the tunnelling rate between adjacent sites.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0311410,
title = {Superfluid current disruption in a chain of weakly coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates},
author = {F. S. Cataliotti and L. Fallani and F. Ferlaino and C. Fort and P. Maddaloni and M. Inguscio},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0311410},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
8 pages, 4 figures