Issue |
EPL
Volume 103, Number 5, September 2013
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 50006 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | General | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/103/50006 | |
Published online | 26 September 2013 |
Realization of tunnel barriers for matter waves using spatial gaps
1 Université de Toulouse, UPS, Laboratoire Collisions Agrégats Réactivité, IRSAMC F-31062 Toulouse, France, EU
2 CNRS, UMR 5589 - F-31062 Toulouse, France, EU
3 Université de Toulouse, UPS, Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, IRSAMC - F-31062 Toulouse, France, EU
4 CNRS, UMR 5152 - F-31062 Toulouse, France, EU
Received: 16 April 2013
Accepted: 2 September 2013
We experimentally demonstrate the trapping of a propagating Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Bragg cavity produced by an attractive optical lattice with a smooth envelope. As a consequence of the envelope, the band gaps become position-dependent and act as mirrors of finite and velocity-dependent reflectivity. We directly observe both the oscillations of the wave packet bouncing in the cavity provided by these spatial gaps and the tunneling out for narrow classes of velocity. Synchronization of different classes of velocity can be achieved by proper shaping of the envelope. This technique can generate single or multiple tunnel barriers for matter waves with a tunable transmission probability, equivalent to a standard barrier of submicron size.
PACS: 03.75.Lm – Tunneling, Josephson effect, Bose-Einstein condensates in periodic potentials, solitons, vortices, and topological excitations / 03.75.Kk – Dynamic properties of condensates; collective and hydrodynamic excitations, superfluid flow / 67.85.-d – Ultracold gases, trapped gases
© EPLA, 2013
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