Nonlinear Ramsey interferometry with Rosen-Zener pulses on a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

We propose a feasible scheme to realize nonlinear Ramsey interferometry with a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate, where the nonlinearity arises from the interaction between coherent atoms. In our scheme, two Rosen-Zener pulses are separated by an intermediate holding period of variable duration and through varying the holding period we have observed nice Ramsey interference patterns in the time domain. In contrast to the standard Ramsey fringes our nonlinear Ramsey patterns display diversiform structures ascribed to the interplay of the nonlinearity and asymmetry. In particular, we find that the frequency of the nonlinear Ramsey fringes exactly reflects the strength of nonlinearity as well as the asymmetry of system. Our finding suggests a potential application of the nonlinear Ramsey interferometry in calibrating the atomic parameters such as scattering length and energy spectrum.