title: Interaction-Assisted Quantum Tunneling of a Bose-Einstein Condensate Out of a Single Trapping Well.
abstract: We experimentally study tunneling of Bose-condensed ^{87}Rb atoms prepared in a quasibound state and observe a nonexponential decay caused by interatomic interactions. A combination of a magnetic quadrupole trap and a thin 1.3  μm barrier created using a blue-detuned sheet of light is used to tailor traps with controllable depth and tunneling rate. The escape dynamics strongly depend on the mean-field energy, which gives rise to three distinct regimes-classical spilling over the barrier, quantum tunneling, and decay dominated by background losses. We show that the tunneling rate depends exponentially on the chemical potential. Our results show good agreement with numerical solutions of the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control and Institute for Optical Sciences, Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A7, Canada.
authors.forename: Shreyas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Potnis
authors.affiliation: Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control and Institute for Optical Sciences, Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A7, Canada.
authors.forename: Ramon
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA.
authors.forename: Lincoln D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Carr
authors.affiliation: Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control and Institute for Optical Sciences, Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A7, Canada.|Canadian Institute For Advanced Research, 180 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1Z8, Canada.
authors.forename: Aephraim M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Steinberg