Nonlinear Rosen-Zener-Stückelberg interferometry of a Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

We adopt a nonlinear two-mode model to investigate the Rosen-Zener-St\uckelberg (RZS) interferometry of an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in double-well potential with a periodically modulating barrier. For symmetric potential, we analyze the properties of interference patterns and derive the interference conditions. For asymmetric potential, we explore the resonance structures caused by destructive interference at the weakly coupling limit and obtain the resonance conditions. In particular, we find that the chaotic motions in the asymmetric case with low-frequency modulation, can destroy the formation of interference fringes. In the symmetric case with high-frequency modulation, we see Fano-line-like resonance structures and find that the reso- nance positions exactly correspond to the boundary of macroscopic quantum self-trapping. We show that the nonlinearity can significantly alter both the shape and position of interference fringes and resonance structures. We discuss the experimental feasibility by comparing the solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with both the solution of the two-mode model and the truncated Wigner simulation as well. The results suggest important applications of nonlinear RZS interferometry both in precisely controlling the dynamics and in accurately measuring the parameters of interacting many-body systems.