Spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates

Brandon Anderson, Tudor D. Stanescu, Victor M. Galitski

Sh. Mardonov, M. Palmero, Michele Modugno +2 more

Interference of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, observed in free expansion experiments, is a basic characteristic of their quantum nature. The ability to produce synthetic spin-orbit coupling in Bose-Einstein condensates has recently opened a new research field. Here we theoretically describe interference of two noninteracting spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates in an external synthetic magnetic field. We demonstrate that the spin-orbit and the Zeeman couplings strongly influence the interference pattern determined by the angle between the spins of the condensates, as can be seen in time-of-flight experiments. We show that a quantum backflow, being a subtle feature of the interference, is, nevertheless, robust against the spin-orbit coupling and applied synthetic magnetic field.

Hui Zhai, Chunji Wang, Chao Gao +1 more

Xudan Chai, Ju-Kui Xue

The phonon mode excitations of spin-orbit (SO) coupled Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) trapped in an one-dimensional optical lattice are studied and the sound speed of the system is obtained analytically.

Ji-Guo Wang, Yueqing Li, Han-Zhao Tang +1 more

We consider two-dimensional spinor F = 1 Bose–Einstein condensates in two types of radially-periodic potentials with spin–orbit coupling, i.e. , spin-independent and spin-dependent radially-periodic potentials. For the Bose–Einstein condensates in a spin-independent radially-periodic potential, the density of each component exhibits the periodic density modulation along the azimuthal direction, which realizes the necklacelike state in the ferromagnetic Bose–Einstein condensates. As the spin-exchange interaction increases, the necklacelike state gradually transition to the plane wave phase for the antiferromagnetic Bose–Einstein condensates with larger spin–orbit coupling. The competition of the spin-dependent radially-periodic potential, spin–orbit coupling, and spin-exchange interaction gives rise to the exotic ground-state phases when the Bose–Einstein condensates in a spin-dependent radially-periodic potential.

Yu-Zhu Chen, Mi Xie