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arXiv:1110.6798 · International Journal of Modern Physics B

SPIN-ORBIT COUPLED QUANTUM GASES

Hui Zhai

Published Jan 10, 2012• 257 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In this review we will discuss the experimental and theoretical progresses in studying spin–orbit coupled degenerate atomic gases during the last two years. We shall first review a series of pioneering experiments in generating synthetic gauge potentials and spin–orbit coupling in atomic gases by engineering atom-light interaction. Realization of spin–orbit coupled quantum gases opens a new avenue in cold atom physics, and also brings out a lot of new physical problems. In particular, the interplay between spin–orbit coupling and inter-atomic interaction leads to many intriguing phenomena. By reviewing recent theoretical studies of both interacting bosons and fermions with isotropic Rashba spin–orbit coupling, the key message delivered here is that spin–orbit coupling can enhance the interaction effects, and make the interaction effects much more dramatic even in the weakly interacting regime.

DOI
10.1142/s0217979212300010

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•Apr 4, 2014•0 citations
In this review we will discuss the experimental and theoretical progresses in studying spin–orbit coupled degenerate atomic gases during the last two years. We shall first review a series of pioneering experiments in generating synthetic gauge potentials and spin–orbit coupling in atomic gases by engineering atom-light interaction. Realization of spin–orbit coupled quantum gases opens a new avenue in cold atom physics, and also brings out a lot of new physical problems. In particular, the interplay between spin–orbit coupling and inter-atomic interaction leads to many intriguing phenomena. By reviewing recent theoretical studies of both interacting bosons and fermions with isotropic Rashba spin–orbit coupling, the key message delivered here is that spin–orbit coupling can enhance the interaction effects, and make the interaction effects much more dramatic even in the weakly interacting regime.
This review focuses on recent developments in synthetic spin-orbit (SO) coupling in ultracold atomic gases. Two types of SO coupling are discussed. One is Raman process induced coupling between spin and motion along one of the spatial directions and the other is Rashba SO coupling. We emphasize their common features in both single-particle and two-body physics and the consequences of both in many-body physics. For instance, single particle ground state degeneracy leads to novel features of superfluidity and a richer phase diagram; increased low-energy density-of-state enhances interaction effects; the absence of Galilean invariance and spin-momentum locking gives rise to intriguing behaviours of superfluid critical velocity and novel quantum dynamics; and the mixing of two-body singlet and triplet states yields a novel fermion pairing structure and topological superfluids. With these examples, we show that investigating SO coupling in cold atom systems can, enrich our understanding of basic phenomena such as superfluidity, provide a good platform for simulating condensed matter states such as topological superfluids and more importantly, result in novel quantum systems such as SO coupled unitary Fermi gas and high spin quantum gases. Finally we also point out major challenges and some possible future directions.
We briefly review recent progress on ultracold atomic Fermi gases with different types of synthetic spin-orbit coupling, including the one-dimensional (1D) equal weight Rashba-Dresselhaus and two-dimensional (2D) Rasbha spin-orbit couplings. Theoretically, we show how the single-body, two-body and many-body properties of Fermi gases are dramatically changed by spin-orbit coupling. In particular, the interplay between spin-orbit coupling and interatomic interaction may lead to several long-sought exotic superfluid phases at low temperatures, such as anisotropic superfluid, topological superfluid and inhomogeneous superfluid. Experimentally, only the first type - equal weight combination of Rasbha and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings - has been realized very recently using a two-photon Raman process. We show how to characterize a normal spin-orbit coupled atomic Fermi gas in both non-interacting and strongly-interacting limits, using particularly momentum-resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy. The experimental demonstration of a strongly-interacting spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas opens a promising way to observe various exotic superfluid phases in the near future.
Ultra-cold quantum gases subjected to light-induced synthetic gauge potentials have become an emergent field of theoretical and experimental studies. Because of the novel application of two-photon Raman transitions, ultra-cold neutral atoms behave like charged particles in magnetic field. The Raman coupling naturally gives rise to an effective spin-orbit interaction which couples the atom’s center-of-mass motion to its selected pseudo-spin degrees of freedom. Combined with unprecedented controllability of interactions, geometry, disorder strength, spectroscopy, and high resolution measurement of momentum distribution, etc., we are truly in an exciting era of ful- filling and going beyond Richard Feynman’s vision of realizing quantum simulators to better understand the quantum mechanical nature of the universe, manifested immensely in the ultra-cold regimes. In this dissertation, we present a collection of theoretical progresses made by the doctoral candidate and his colleagues and collaborators. From the past few years of work, we mainly address three aspects of the synthetic spin-orbit and light field induced coupling in ultracold quantum gases: a) The ground-state physics of single- particle system, two-body bound states, and many-body systems, all of which are subjected to spin-orbit coupling originated from synthetic gauge potentials; b) The symmetry breaking, topological phase transition and quench dynamics, which are conveniently offered by the realized experimental setup; c) The proposal and impli- cations of light field induced dynamical spin-orbit coupling for atoms inside optical cavity. Our work represents an important advancement of theoretical understanding to the active research frontier of ultra-cold atom physics with spin-orbit coupling.
Abstract We briefly review the recent progress of theories and experiments on spin-orbital-angular-momentum (SOAM)-coupled quantum gases. The coupling between the intrinsic degree of freedom of particles and their external orbital motions widely exists in the universe and leads to a broad variety of fundamental phenomena in both classical physics and quantum mechanics. The recent realization of synthetic SOAM coupling in cold atoms has attracted a great deal of attention and stimulated a large amount of considerations on exotic quantum phases in both Bose and Fermi gases. In this review, we present a basic idea of engineering SOAM coupling in neutral atoms, starting from a semiclassical description of atom-light interaction. Unique features of single-particle physics in the presence of SOAM coupling are discussed. The intriguing ground-state quantum phases of weakly interacting Bose gases are introduced, with emphasis on a so-called angular stripe phase, which has not yet been observed at present. It is demonstrated how to generate a stable giant vortex in a SOAM-coupled Fermi superfluid. We also discuss the topological characters of a Fermi superfluid in the presence of SOAM coupling. We then introduce the experimental achievement of SOAM coupling in 87^{87}87 87 Rb Bose gases and its first observation of phase transitions. The most recent development of SOAM-coupled Bose gases in experiments is also summarized. Regarding the controllability of ultracold quantum gases, it opens a new era, from the quantum simulation point of view, to study the fundamental physics resulting from SOAM coupling as well as newly emergent quantum phases.
Spin-orbit (SO) coupling leads to many fundamental phenomena in a wide range of quantum systems from nuclear physics, condensed matter physics to atomic physics. For instance, in electronic condensed matter systems, SO coupling can lead to quantum spin Hall states or topological insulators, which have potential applications in quantum devices. Recently, SO coupling has been artificially induced in quantum liquids - ultracold dilute atomic Bose and Fermi gases - by the so-called synthetic gauge fields. Combined with unprecedented controllability of interactions and geometry in ultracold atoms, this manipulation of SO coupling opens an entirely new paradigm for studying strong correlations of quantum many-body systems under Abelian and non-Abelian gauge fields. In the major portion of this thesis, we theoretically investigate the ground state and collective excitations of a two-component Bose gas in a two-dimensional harmonic trap, subject to Rashba SO coupling. Our work represents an important extension into the regime of non-Abelian gauge field in which the spin degrees of freedom play an essential role. -- Abstract and Thesis are based on our publications in: (1) 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.010402 (2) 10.1103/PhysRevA.85.023606 (3) 10.1103/PhysRevA.87.033627 (4) 10.1103/PhysRevA.83.033607 (5) 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.123201