NOON states with ultracold bosonic atoms via resonance- and chaos-assisted tunneling

We investigate theoretically the generation of microscopic atomic NOON states, corresponding to the coherent vertical bar N, 0 > + vertical bar 0, N > superposition with N similar to 5 particles, via collective tunneling of interacting ultracold bosonic atoms within a symmetric double-well potential in the self-trapping regime. We show that a periodic driving of the double well with suitably tuned amplitude and frequency parameters allows one to substantially boost this tunneling process without altering its collective character. The timescale to generate the NOON superposition, which corresponds to half the tunneling time and would be prohibitively large in the undriven double well for the atomic populations considered, can thereby be drastically reduced, which renders the realization of NOON states through this protocol experimentally feasible. Resonance- and chaos-assisted tunneling are identified as key mechanisms in this context. A quantitative semiclassical evaluation of their impact on the collective tunneling process allows one to determine the optimal choice for the driving parameters in order to generate those NOON states as fast as possible.

Automated summary

Theoretical investigation was conducted on the generation of microscopic atomic NOON states via collective tunneling of interacting ultracold bosonic atoms within a symmetric double-well potential. Periodic driving of the double well can substantially boost the tunneling process without altering its collective character, reducing the timescale to generate the NOON superposition. Resonance- and chaos-assisted tunneling are key mechanisms in this context.