arXiv · 1911.11443
Macroscopic Matter Wave Quantum Tunnelling
Abstract
Quantum tunneling is a phenomenon of non-equilibrium quantum dynamics and its detailed process is largely unexplored. We report the experimental observation of macroscopic quantum tunneling of Bose-Einstein Condensate in a hybrid trap. By exerting a non-adiabatic kick to excite a collective rotation mode of the trapped condensate, a periodic pulse train, which remains as condensate, is then out-coupled by quantum tunneling. This non-equilibrium dynamics is analogue to tunneling ionization. The imaged tunneling process shows the splitting of matter-wave packet by the potential barrier. The controversial "tunneling time" question is found inadequate, from the point of view of wave propagation. The realized matter-wave pulse train can also be a passive pulsed atom laser for atom interferometer applications.
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Khemendra Shukla, Po-Sung Chen, Jun-Ren Chen, Yu-Hsuan Chang, Yi-Wei Liu. 2019-11-26. Macroscopic Matter Wave Quantum Tunnelling. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-020-0371-x
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