Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1502.07091 · Scientific Reports

Tunable atomic spin-orbit coupling synthesized with a modulating gradient magnetic field

Xinyu Luo, Ling-Na Wu, Ji-Yao Chen, Qing Guan, Kuiyi Gao, Zhi-Fang Xu, Li You, Ruquan Wang

Published Jan 11, 2016• 118 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We report the observation of synthesized spin-orbit coupling (SOC) for ultracold spin-1 (87)Rb atoms. Different from earlier experiments where a one dimensional (1D) atomic SOC of pseudo-spin-1/2 is synthesized with Raman laser fields, the scheme we demonstrate employs a gradient magnetic field (GMF) and ground-state atoms, thus is immune to atomic spontaneous emission. The strength of SOC we realize can be tuned by changing the modulation amplitude of the GMF, and the effect of the SOC is confirmed through the studies of: 1) the collective dipole oscillation of an atomic condensate in a harmonic trap after the synthesized SOC is abruptly turned on; and 2) the minimum energy state at a finite adiabatically adjusted momentum when SOC strength is slowly ramped up. The condensate coherence is found to remain very good after driven by modulating GMFs. Our scheme presents an alternative means for studying interacting many-body systems with synthesized SOC.

DOI
10.1038/srep18983

Related papers

Studies of atomic spin-orbit coupling synthesized with gradient magnetic fields

Xinyu Luo, Ling-Na Wu, Ruquan Wang +1 more

Atomic spin orbit coupling (SOC) can be synthesized with modulating gradient magnetic field (GMF). This is confirmed through studying collective dipole oscillations for a spin-1 atomic condensate in a harmonic trap after abruptly turning on SOC, and studying adiabatically adjusted equilibrium states when SOC strength is slowly ramped up. Further measurements reveal that SOC can be enhanced when the GMF modulation frequency approaches trapping frequency.

Journal of Physics Conference Series•Sep 7, 2015•0 citations

Atomic spin orbit coupling synthesized with gradient magnetic fields

Xinyu Luo, Ling-Na Wu, Ruquan Wang +1 more

Spin orbit coupling (SOC) for neutral atoms can be synthesized with pulsed or time modulating gradient magnetic field (GMF). This is confirmed through the studies of collective dipole oscillations for a spin-1 atomic condensate in a harmonic trap after abruptly turning on SOC and adiabatically adjusted equilibrium states when SOC strength is slowly ramped up. Further measurements reveal that SOC can be enhanced when the GMF modulation frequency approaches harmonic trap frequency. Additionally, we discuss how the technique of pulsed GMF can be used to synthesize space-period magnetic fields, or magnetic lattices.

Journal of Physics Conference Series•Sep 7, 2015•1 citation

Harmonic trap resonance enhanced synthetic atomic spin-orbit coupling

Ling-Na Wu, Xinyu Luo, Zhi-Fang Xu +3 more

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) plays an essential role in many exotic and interesting phenomena in condensed matter physics. In neutral-atom-based quantum simulations, synthetic SOC constitutes a key enabling element. The strength of SOC realized so far is limited by various reasons or constraints. This work reports tunable SOC synthesized with a gradient magnetic field (GMF) for atoms in a harmonic trap. Nearly ten-fold enhancement is observed when the GMF is modulated near the harmonic-trap resonance in comparison with the free-space situation. A theory is developed that well explains the experimental results. Our work offers a clear physical insight into and analytical understanding of how to tune the strength of atomic SOC synthesized with GMF using harmonic trap resonance.

arXiv:1607.07005•Scientific Reports•Apr 27, 2017•4 citations

Atomic spin-orbit coupling synthesized with magnetic-field-gradient pulses

Zhi-Fang Xu, Li You, Masahito Ueda

We discuss a general scheme for creating atomic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) such as the Rashba or Dresselhaus types using magnetic-field-gradient pulses. In contrast to conventional schemes based on adiabatic center-of-mass motion with atomic internal states restricted to a dressed-state subspace, our scheme works for the complete subspace of a hyperfine-spin manifold by utilizing the coupling between the atomic magnetic moment and external magnetic fields. A space-dependent pulsed magnetic field acts as an internal-state-dependent impulse, thereby coupling the atomic internal spin with its orbital center-of-mass motion, as in the Einstein--de Haas effect. This effective coupling can be dynamically manipulated to synthesize SOC of any type (Rashba, Dresselhaus, or any linear combination thereof). Our scheme can be realized with most experimental setups of ultracold atoms and is especially suited for atoms with zero nuclear spins.

arXiv:1306.2829•Physical Review A•Jun 25, 2013•113 citations

Chiral Raman coupling for spin-orbit coupling in ultracold atomic gases

Biao Shan, Lianghui Huang, Yuhang Zhao +4 more

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in ultracold atoms is engineered by light-atom interaction, such as two-photon Raman transitions between two Zeeman spin states. In this paper, we propose and experimentally realize chiral Raman coupling to generate SOC in ultracold atomic gases, which exhibits high quantization axis direction dependence. Chiral Raman coupling for SOC is created by chiral light-atom interaction, in which a circularly polarized electromagnetic field generated by two Raman lasers interacts with two Zeeman spin states $\ensuremath{\delta}{m}_{F}=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1$ (chiral transition). We present a simple scheme of chiral one-dimensional (1D) Raman coupling by employing two Raman lasers at an intersecting angle ${90}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ with the proper polarization configuration. In this case, Raman coupling for SOC exists in one direction of the magnetic quantization axis and disappears in the opposite direction. Then we extend this scheme into a chiral two-dimensional (2D) optical square Raman lattice configuration to generate the 1D SOC. There are two orthogonal 1D SOCs, which exist in the positive and negative directions of the magnetic quantization axis respectively. This case is compared with 2D SOC based on the nonchiral 2D optical Raman lattice scheme for studying the topological energy band. This paper broadens the horizon for understanding chiral physics and simulating topological quantum systems.

arXiv:2502.06259•Physical Review A•Feb 20, 2025•4 citations

Tunable Spin-orbit Coupling and Quantum Phase Transition in a Trapped Bose-Einstein Condensate

Yongping Zhang, Gang Chen, Chuanwei Zhang

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC), the intrinsic interaction between a particle spin and its motion, is responsible for various important phenomena, ranging from atomic fine structure to topological condensed matter physics. The recent experimental breakthrough on the realization of SOC for ultra-cold atoms provides a completely new platform for exploring spin-orbit coupled superfluid physics. However, the SOC strength in the experiment is not tunable. In this report, we propose a scheme for tuning the SOC strength through a fast and coherent modulation of the laser intensities. We show that the many-body interaction between atoms, together with the tunable SOC, can drive a quantum phase transition (QPT) from spin-balanced to spin-polarized ground states in a harmonic trapped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), which resembles the long-sought Dicke QPT. We characterize the QPT using the periods of collective oscillations of the BEC, which show pronounced peaks and damping around the quantum critical point.

arXiv:1111.4778•Scientific Reports•Jun 3, 2013•113 citations
We report the observation of synthesized spin-orbit coupling (SOC) for ultracold spin-1 (87)Rb atoms. Different from earlier experiments where a one dimensional (1D) atomic SOC of pseudo-spin-1/2 is synthesized with Raman laser fields, the scheme we demonstrate employs a gradient magnetic field (GMF) and ground-state atoms, thus is immune to atomic spontaneous emission. The strength of SOC we realize can be tuned by changing the modulation amplitude of the GMF, and the effect of the SOC is confirmed through the studies of: 1) the collective dipole oscillation of an atomic condensate in a harmonic trap after the synthesized SOC is abruptly turned on; and 2) the minimum energy state at a finite adiabatically adjusted momentum when SOC strength is slowly ramped up. The condensate coherence is found to remain very good after driven by modulating GMFs. Our scheme presents an alternative means for studying interacting many-body systems with synthesized SOC.
Spin orbit coupling (SOC) for neutral atoms can be synthesized with pulsed or time modulating gradient magnetic field (GMF). This is confirmed through the studies of collective dipole oscillations for a spin-1 atomic condensate in a harmonic trap after abruptly turning on SOC and adiabatically adjusted equilibrium states when SOC strength is slowly ramped up. Further measurements reveal that SOC can be enhanced when the GMF modulation frequency approaches harmonic trap frequency. Additionally, we discuss how the technique of pulsed GMF can be used to synthesize space-period magnetic fields, or magnetic lattices.
Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) plays an essential role in many exotic and interesting phenomena in condensed matter physics. In neutral-atom-based quantum simulations, synthetic SOC constitutes a key enabling element. The strength of SOC realized so far is limited by various reasons or constraints. This work reports tunable SOC synthesized with a gradient magnetic field (GMF) for atoms in a harmonic trap. Nearly ten-fold enhancement is observed when the GMF is modulated near the harmonic-trap resonance in comparison with the free-space situation. A theory is developed that well explains the experimental results. Our work offers a clear physical insight into and analytical understanding of how to tune the strength of atomic SOC synthesized with GMF using harmonic trap resonance.
We discuss a general scheme for creating atomic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) such as the Rashba or Dresselhaus types using magnetic-field-gradient pulses. In contrast to conventional schemes based on adiabatic center-of-mass motion with atomic internal states restricted to a dressed-state subspace, our scheme works for the complete subspace of a hyperfine-spin manifold by utilizing the coupling between the atomic magnetic moment and external magnetic fields. A space-dependent pulsed magnetic field acts as an internal-state-dependent impulse, thereby coupling the atomic internal spin with its orbital center-of-mass motion, as in the Einstein--de Haas effect. This effective coupling can be dynamically manipulated to synthesize SOC of any type (Rashba, Dresselhaus, or any linear combination thereof). Our scheme can be realized with most experimental setups of ultracold atoms and is especially suited for atoms with zero nuclear spins.
Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in ultracold atoms is engineered by light-atom interaction, such as two-photon Raman transitions between two Zeeman spin states. In this paper, we propose and experimentally realize chiral Raman coupling to generate SOC in ultracold atomic gases, which exhibits high quantization axis direction dependence. Chiral Raman coupling for SOC is created by chiral light-atom interaction, in which a circularly polarized electromagnetic field generated by two Raman lasers interacts with two Zeeman spin states $\ensuremath{\delta}{m}_{F}=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1$ (chiral transition). We present a simple scheme of chiral one-dimensional (1D) Raman coupling by employing two Raman lasers at an intersecting angle ${90}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ with the proper polarization configuration. In this case, Raman coupling for SOC exists in one direction of the magnetic quantization axis and disappears in the opposite direction. Then we extend this scheme into a chiral two-dimensional (2D) optical square Raman lattice configuration to generate the 1D SOC. There are two orthogonal 1D SOCs, which exist in the positive and negative directions of the magnetic quantization axis respectively. This case is compared with 2D SOC based on the nonchiral 2D optical Raman lattice scheme for studying the topological energy band. This paper broadens the horizon for understanding chiral physics and simulating topological quantum systems.
Spin-orbit coupling (SOC), the intrinsic interaction between a particle spin and its motion, is responsible for various important phenomena, ranging from atomic fine structure to topological condensed matter physics. The recent experimental breakthrough on the realization of SOC for ultra-cold atoms provides a completely new platform for exploring spin-orbit coupled superfluid physics. However, the SOC strength in the experiment is not tunable. In this report, we propose a scheme for tuning the SOC strength through a fast and coherent modulation of the laser intensities. We show that the many-body interaction between atoms, together with the tunable SOC, can drive a quantum phase transition (QPT) from spin-balanced to spin-polarized ground states in a harmonic trapped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), which resembles the long-sought Dicke QPT. We characterize the QPT using the periods of collective oscillations of the BEC, which show pronounced peaks and damping around the quantum critical point.