Two-well atomic Bose-Hubbard analogues of optical cavities

Abstract

We propose and analyse analogs of optical cavities for atoms using two-well Bose-Hubbard models with pumping and losses. With one well pumped, we find that both the mean-field dynamics and the quantum statistics show a quantitative dependence on the choice of damped well. Both the systems we analyse remain far from equilibrium, preserving good coherence between the wells in the steady-state. We find a small degree of quadrature squeezing and mode entanglement for some parameter regimes. Due to recent experimental advances, it should be possible to demonstrate the effects we investigate and predict.