The Josephson oscillations between condensates in a double-well trap are known theoretically to be strongly effected by the mean-field interaction in dilute atomic gases. The most important effect is that the amplitude of oscillation in the relative population of the two wells is greatly suppressed due to the mean-field interaction, which can make it difficult to observe the Josephson effect. Starting from the work of Raghavan, Smerzi, Fantoni, and Shenoy, we calculate the maximum amplitude of oscillation in the relative population as a function of various physical parameters, such as the trap aspect ratio, the Gaussian barrier height and width, and the total number of atoms in the condensate. We also compare results for ${}^{23}\mathrm{Na}$ and ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}.$ Our main new result is that the maximum amplitude of oscillation depends strongly on the aspect ratio of the harmonic trap and can be maximized in a “pancake-shaped” trap, as used in the experiment of Anderson and Kasevich.

• Received 8 February 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.64.013610