2003/08/06 by E. Sakellari, Sakellari, E., N. P. Proukakis +5
Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed Matter (cond-mat) #FOS: Physical sciences #cond-mat
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0308104
A substantially revised manuscript (some figures removed, improved discussion and some additional material) is available on cond-mat/0312396
arxiv created 2003/12/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
Josephson weak links in superconductors can be engineered such that the phase difference across the junction is π (π-junction),leading to the reversal of the current. The conditions under which the analogous effect of supercurrent counterflow can be achieved in a double-well atomic Bose-Einstein condensate are investigated. It is shown that this effect is observable for condensates up to a few thousand atoms, which are initially prepared in an anti-symmetric 'π-state' and subsequently subjected to a uniformly increasing magnetic field gradient. This effect is found to be only weakly-dependent on trap geometry, and can be observed in both attractive and repulsive condensates.