Coherent Control of Tunneling in Double-Well Potentials

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to control tunneling and localize wave packets in asymmetric double-well potentials by manipulating potential asymmetry, supported by numerical examples and potential experimental applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach for coherent control of tunneling in asymmetric double-well systems based on eigenvalue structure analysis.

Findings

Eigenvalues of low-lying states are close to quadratic potential eigenvalues.

Method enables almost complete localization of wave packets.

Numerical examples suggest applicability to more general potentials.

Abstract

For an asymmetric double-well potential system, it is shown that, if the potential is quadratic until it reaches several times of the zero-point energies from the bottoms in each well, the energy eigenvalues of the low lying excited states of the double-well system must be close to the eigenvalues of the quadratic potentials. These eigenvalue structures suggest a method for the coherent control of the tunneling as well as realizing almost complete localization of the wave packet in one of the wells, by handling the double-well asymmetry. Numerical examples are included to indicate that the method could be useful also in a more general potential, and to propose experimental confirmations.