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Phys. Rev. A 77, 031602(R) (2008) [4 pages]

Coherent single atom shuttle between two Bose-Einstein condensates

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Uwe R. Fischer1, Christian Iniotakis2, and Anna Posazhennikova3,4
1Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Institut für Theoretische Physik, Auf der Morgenstelle 14, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany
2ETH Zürich, Institut für Theoretische Physik, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland
3Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bonn, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
4Institut für Theoretische Festkörperphysik and DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures, Universität Karlsruhe, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany

Received 14 September 2007; revised 30 October 2007; published 4 March 2008

We study an atomic quantum dot representing a single hyperfine “impurity” atom which is coherently coupled to two well-separated Bose-Einstein condensates, in the limit when the coupling between the dot and the condensates dominates the intercondensate tunneling coupling. It is demonstrated that the quantum dot by itself can induce large-amplitude Josephson-like oscillations of the particle imbalance between the condensates, which display a two-frequency behavior. For noninteracting condensates, we provide an approximate solution to the coupled nonlinear equations of motion which allows us to obtain these two frequencies analytically.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.77.031602
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.77.031602
PACS:
03.75.Lm, 05.30.Jp