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arXiv:1301.5403 · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Unconventional states of bosons with the synthetic spin–orbit coupling

Xiangfa Zhou, Yi Li, Zi Cai, Congjun Wu

Published Jun 24, 2013• 186 citations
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Abstract

The spin–orbit coupling with bosons gives rise to novel properties that are absent in usual bosonic systems. Under very general conditions, the conventional ground state wavefunctions of bosons are constrained by the ‘no-node’ theorem to be positive definite. In contrast, the linear dependence of the spin–orbit coupling leads to complex-valued condensate wavefunctions beyond this theorem. In this paper, we review the study of this class of unconventional Bose–Einstein condensations focusing on their topological properties. Both the 2D Rashba and 3D -type Weyl spin–orbit couplings give rise to Landau-level-like quantization of single-particle levels in the harmonic trap. Interacting condensates develop the half-quantum vortex structure spontaneously breaking the time-reversal symmetry and exhibit topological spin textures of the skyrmion type. In particular, the 3D Weyl coupling generates topological defects in the quaternionic phase space as an SU(2) generalization of the usual U(1) vortices. Rotating spin–orbit-coupled condensates exhibit rich vortex structures due to the interplay between vorticity and spin texture. In the Mott-insulating states in optical lattices, quantum magnetism is characterized by the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya-type exchange interactions.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/46/13/134001

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The spin–orbit coupling with bosons gives rise to novel properties that are absent in usual bosonic systems. Under very general conditions, the conventional ground state wavefunctions of bosons are constrained by the ‘no-node’ theorem to be positive definite. In contrast, the linear dependence of the spin–orbit coupling leads to complex-valued condensate wavefunctions beyond this theorem. In this paper, we review the study of this class of unconventional Bose–Einstein condensations focusing on their topological properties. Both the 2D Rashba and 3D -type Weyl spin–orbit couplings give rise to Landau-level-like quantization of single-particle levels in the harmonic trap. Interacting condensates develop the half-quantum vortex structure spontaneously breaking the time-reversal symmetry and exhibit topological spin textures of the skyrmion type. In particular, the 3D Weyl coupling generates topological defects in the quaternionic phase space as an SU(2) generalization of the usual U(1) vortices. Rotating spin–orbit-coupled condensates exhibit rich vortex structures due to the interplay between vorticity and spin texture. In the Mott-insulating states in optical lattices, quantum magnetism is characterized by the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya-type exchange interactions.
According to the “no-node" theorem, the many-body ground state wavefunctions of conventional Bose—Einstein condensations (BEC) are positive-definite, thus time-reversal symmetry cannot be spontaneously broken. We find that multi-component bosons with spin-orbit coupling provide an unconventional type of BECs beyond this paradigm. We focus on a subtle case of isotropic Rashba spin-orbit coupling and the spin-independent interaction. In the limit of the weak confining potential, the condensate wavefunctions are frustrated at the Hartree—Fock level due to the degeneracy of the Rashba ring. Quantum zero-point energy selects the spin-spiral type condensate through the “order-from-disorder" mechanism. In a strong harmonic confining trap, the condensate spontaneously generates a half-quantum vortex combined with the skyrmion type of spin texture. In both cases, time-reversal symmetry is spontaneously broken. These phenomena can be realized in both cold atom systems with artificial spin-orbit couplings generated from atom-laser interactions and exciton condensates in semi-conductor systems.
According to the no-node theorem, many-body ground state wavefunctions of conventional Bose-Einstein condensations (BEC) are positive-definite, thus time-reversal symmetry cannot be spontaneously broken. We find that multi-component bosons with spin-orbit coupling provide an unconventional type of BECs beyond this paradigm. We focus on the subtle case of isotropic Rashba spin-orbit coupling and the spin-independent interaction. In the limit of the weak confining potential, the condensate wavefunctions are frustrated at the Hartree-Fock level due to the degeneracy of the Rashba ring. Quantum zero-point energy selects the spin-spiral type condensate through the order-from-disorder mechanism. In a strong harmonic confining trap, the condensate spontaneously generates a half-quantum vortex combined with the skyrmion type of spin texture. In both cases, time-reversal symmetry is spontaneously broken. These phenomena can be realized in both cold atom systems with artificial spin-orbit couplings generated from atom-laser interactions and exciton condensates in semi-conductor systems.
According to the no-node theorem, many-body ground state wavefunctions of conventional Bose-Einstein condensations (BEC) are positive-definite, thus time-reversal symmetry cannot be spontaneously broken. We find that multi-component bosons with spin-orbit coupling provide an unconventional type of BECs beyond this paradigm. We focus on the subtle case of isotropic Rashba spin-orbit coupling and the spin-independent interaction. In the limit of the weak confining potential, the condensate wavefunctions are frustrated at the Hartree-Fock level due to the degeneracy of the Rashba ring. Quantum zero-point energy selects the spin-spiral type condensate through the order-from-disorder mechanism. In a strong harmonic confining trap, the condensate spontaneously generates a half-quantum vortex combined with the skyrmion type of spin texture. In both cases, time-reversal symmetry is spontaneously broken. These phenomena can be realized in both cold atom systems with artificial spin-orbit couplings generated from atom-laser interactions and exciton condensates in semi-conductor systems.
Feynman's "no-node" theorem states that the conventional many-body ground state wavefunctions of bosons in the coordinate representation are positive definite. This implies that time-reversal symmetry cannot be spontaneously broken. In this article, we review our progress in studying a class of new states of unconventional Bose–Einstein condensations beyond this paradigm. These states can either be the long-lived metastable states of ultracold bosons in high orbital bands in optical lattices as a result of the "orbital Hund's rule" interaction, or the ground states of spinful bosons with spin-orbit coupling linearly dependent on momentum. In both cases, Feynman's argument does not apply. The resultant many-body wavefunctions are complex-valued and thus break time-reversal symmetry spontaneously. Exotic phenomena in these states include the Bose–Einstein condensation at nonzero momentum, the ordering of orbital angular momentum moments, the half-quantum vortex, and the spin texture of skyrmions.
We study the topological configurations of the two-component condensates of bosons with the 333D σ⃗⋅p⃗\vec{\sigma}\cdot \vec{p}σ⋅p​ Weyl-type spin-orbit coupling subject to a harmonic trapping potential. The topology of the condensate wavefunctions manifests in the quaternionic representation. In comparison to the U(1)U(1)U(1) complex phase, the quaternionic phase manifold is S3S^3S3 and the spin orientations form the S2S^2S2 Bloch sphere through the 1st Hopf mapping. The spatial distributions of the quaternionic phases exhibit the 3D skyrmion configurations, and the spin distributions possess non-trivial Hopf invariants. Spin textures evolve from the concentric distributions at the weak spin-orbit coupling regime to the rotation symmetry breaking patterns at the intermediate spin-orbit coupling regime. In the strong spin-orbit coupling regime, the single-particle spectra exhibit the Landau-level type quantization. In this regime, the three-dimensional skyrmion lattice structures are formed when interactions are below the energy scale of Landau level mixings. Sufficiently strong interactions can change condensates into spin-polarized plane-wave states, or, superpositions of two plane-waves exhibiting helical spin spirals.
The Rashba spin-orbit coupling is equivalent to the finite Yang-Mills flux of a static SU(2) gauge field. It gives rise to the protected edge states in two-dimensional topological band insulators, much like magnetic field yields the integer quantum Hall effect. An outstanding question is which collective topological behaviors of interacting particles are made possible by the Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Here we address one aspect of this question by exploring the Rashba SU(2) analogs of vortices in superconductors. Using the Landau-Ginzburg approach and conservation laws, we classify the prominent two-dimensional condensates of two- and three-component spin-orbit-coupled bosons, and characterize their vortex excitations. There are two prominent types of condensates that take advantage of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Their vortices exist in multiple flavors whose number is determined by the spin representation, and interact among themselves through logarithmic or linear potentials as a function of distance. The vortices that interact linearly exhibit confinement and asymptotic freedom similar to quarks in quantum chromodynamics. One of the two condensate types supports small metastable neutral quadruplets of vortices, and their tiles as metastable vortex lattices. Quantum melting of such vortex lattices could give rise to non-Abelian fractional topological insulators, SU(2) analogs of fractional quantum Hall states. The physical systems in which these states could exist are trapped two- and three-component bosonic ultracold atoms subjected to artificial gauge fields, as well as solid-state quantum wells made either from Kondo insulators such as SmB6{\mathrm{SmB}}_{6}SmB6​ or conventional topological insulators interfaced with conventional superconductors.