Josephson oscillation of a superfluid Fermi gas.pdfVIP

a r X i v : 0 8 0 2 .2 2 3 1 v 1 [ c o n d - m a t .o t h e r ] 1 5 F e b 2 0 0 8 EPJ manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) Josephson oscillation of a superfluid Fermi gas Sadhan K. Adhikaria Instituto de F??sica Teo?rica, UNESP ? Sa?o Paulo State University, 01.405-900 Sa?o Paulo, Sa?o Paulo, Brazil February 15, 2008 Abstract. Using the complete numerical solution of a time-dependent three-dimensional mean-field model we study the Josephson oscillation of a superfluid Fermi gas (SFG) at zero temperature formed in a combined axially-symmetric harmonic plus one-dimensional periodic optical-lattice (OL) potentials after displacing the harmonic trap along the axial OL axis. We study the dependence of Josephson frequency on the strength of the OL potential. The Josephson frequency decreases with increasing strength as found in the experiment of Cataliotti et al. [Science 293 (2001) 843] for a Bose-Einstein condensate and of the experiment of Pezze? et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (2004) 120401] for an ideal Fermi gas. We demonstrate a breakdown of Josephson oscillation in the SFG for a large displacement of the harmonic trap. These features of Josephson oscillation of a SFG can be tested experimentally. PACS. 03.75.Ss Degenerate Fermi gases, 03.75.Lm Tunneling, Josephson effect, Bose-Einstein conden- sates in periodic potentials, solitons, vortices, and topological excitations, 03.75.Kk Dynamic properties of condensates; collective and hydrodynamic excitations, superfluid flow 1 Introduction The observation of an oscillating Josephson current across an one-dimensional (1D) periodic array of potential wells, usually generated by a polarized standing-wave laser field and commonly known as an optical-lattice (OL) poten- tial, in a trapped “cigar-shaped” Bose-Einstein conden- sate (BEC) by Cataliotti et al. [1] was the first manifesta- tion of this phenomenon in trapped neutral bosons. Until then the Josephson effect was confirmed in superconduc- tors with cha