Abstract

Bose Einstein condensates (BECs) in double well potentials have drawn a lot of attention for the possibilities they offer to study fundamental quantum mechanical effects at the macroscopic level as well as for potential applications like interferometry, high precision measurements or thermometry. Recently, weakly linked parts of a BEC in a double well potential forming a single Josephson junction [1] have been achieved [2], In contrast to Josephson junctions realized in superconductors and superfluids [3], in BEC the interatomic interactions play a crucial role leading to anharmonic Josephson oscillations [4], if the initial population imbalance of the two wells is below a critical value, and to macroscopic quantum self-trapping [5] i. e, inhibition of large amplitude Josephson oscillations above the threshold for the population imbalance.

© 2009 IEEE