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arXiv:1909.11871 · Physical Review A

Commensurate-incommensurate supersolid ground state of a spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate in one-dimensional optical lattices

Shuai Li, Huan Wang, Fuli Li, Xiaoling Cui, Bo Liu

Published Sep 18, 2020• 13 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Recent experimental advances to create tunable synthetic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in ultracold gases provide new possibilities to access fruitful spin-orbit coupled quantum many-body physics. In this paper, we demonstrate that the combined effect of two-dimensional (2D) SOC and one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice in interacting bosons can provide an alternative scheme in ultracold gases to achieve the crossover of the commensurate-incommensurate supersolid ground state ``with respect to the background optical lattice.'' Interestingly, it is shown that the anharmonicity arising from the lattice potential leads to the ``pin'' effect and make the ground-state break the continuous translational symmetry along the direction perpendicular to the 1D lattice, whereas the competition between the lattice period and the SOC length results in the crossover of commensurate-incommensurate ground state along the direction of 1D lattice with discrete translational symmetry breaking. Such a combined effect of SOC and optical lattice, thus, induces a new 2D periodic pattern in the ground state, accompanying with nonzero 2D superfluid density characterizing the supersolid nature in 2D of the ground state. Furthermore, a skyrmion-anti-skyrmion lattice is found associated with the appearance of such supersolid ground state, indicating its topological nontrivial properties. Experimental signature of our proposed supersolid ground state is also predicted by means of the time-of-flight measurement.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.102.033328

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Recent experimental advances to create tunable synthetic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in ultracold gases provide new possibilities to access fruitful spin-orbit coupled quantum many-body physics. In this paper, we demonstrate that the combined effect of two-dimensional (2D) SOC and one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice in interacting bosons can provide an alternative scheme in ultracold gases to achieve the crossover of the commensurate-incommensurate supersolid ground state with respect to the background optical lattice.'' Interestingly, it is shown that the anharmonicity arising from the lattice potential leads to the pin'' effect and make the ground-state break the continuous translational symmetry along the direction perpendicular to the 1D lattice, whereas the competition between the lattice period and the SOC length results in the crossover of commensurate-incommensurate ground state along the direction of 1D lattice with discrete translational symmetry breaking. Such a combined effect of SOC and optical lattice, thus, induces a new 2D periodic pattern in the ground state, accompanying with nonzero 2D superfluid density characterizing the supersolid nature in 2D of the ground state. Furthermore, a skyrmion-anti-skyrmion lattice is found associated with the appearance of such supersolid ground state, indicating its topological nontrivial properties. Experimental signature of our proposed supersolid ground state is also predicted by means of the time-of-flight measurement.
Spin and orbital are two basic degrees of freedom that play significant roles in exploring exotic quantum phases in optical lattices with synthetic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and high orbital bands, respectively. Here, we combine these two crucial ingredients for the first time by proposing a completely new orbital optical Raman lattice scheme to explore exotic high-orbital Bose condensates with Raman-induced SOC in a square lattice. We find that both the SOC and p-orbital interactions influence the condensed state of bosons. Their interplay results in two novel high-orbital many-body quantum phases: the uniform angular momentum superfluid phase, which exhibits a global topological chiral orbital current characterized by a uniform Chern number, and the two-dimensional topological spin-orbital supersolid phase, which is characterized by the spin and orbital angular momentum density wave patterns and topological excitations with opposite Chern numbers, respectively protecting the chiral and antichiral edge modes in the neighboring supersolid clusters. Our scheme may open a new avenue for exploring exotic SOC and high-orbital physics in optical lattices, and is expected to advance the experimental realization of novel supersolids in higher dimensions.
Abstract The interplay between spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and nearest-neighbor (NN) repulsion in optical lattices provides a fertile ground for realizing exotic quantum phases that simultaneously host finite-momentum condensation and spontaneous density modulation. We address this interplay for spin-1 bosons in a two-dimensional square lattice with Rashba SOC and NN interactions, employing the single-site Gutzwiller mean-field (SGMF) method as our primary tool and the 2×22\times22×2 cluster Gutzwiller mean-field (CGMF) approach as a systematic check of short-range correlation effects. Our central finding is that SOC fundamentally reconstructs the single-particle band structure, shifting the lowest-band minimum from zero to finite momenta with increasing SOC strength. This reconstruction underpins a cascade of modulated superfluid (SF) phases-stripe, square, twist, and checkerboard-whose condensate textures are dictated predominantly by SOC. The addition of NN repulsion naturally favors real-space density ordering; the competition and cooperation between this density order and SOC-generated phase textures then stabilize a family of supersolid (SS) phases that mirror the same four modulated patterns, in which finite-momentum condensate and density-wave orders coexist. To complement the numerical phase diagrams, we derive semi-analytical phase boundaries for both the Mott-insulator (MI)-SF and density-wave (DW)-SS transitions using second-order perturbation theory. These expressions not only reproduce the overall trends of the SGMF results but also provide a transparent physical picture of the underlying instability mechanisms. Importantly, the representative CGMF calculations retain the same DW lobes and intervening SS regions, albeit with quantitative shifts, while systematic finite-size analyses reveal only weak dependence on lattice size, with no evidence of phase separation, collectively attesting to the robustness of the predicted phase structure. Together, our results establish a comprehensive mean-field framework that unifies the SOC-driven finite-momentum condensation and the NN-interaction-induced density ordering within a single picture, offering a valuable benchmark for future experimental explorations of spin-orbit-coupled spinor gases in optical lattices.
We study ultracold bosonic atoms with synthetic three-dimensional spin-orbit (SO) coupling in a cubic optical lattice. In the superfluidity phase, the lowest energy band exhibits one, two, or four pairs of degenerate single-particle ground states depending on the SO-coupling strengths, which can give rise to condensate states with spin stripes for weak atomic interactions. In the deep Mott-insulator regime, the effective spin Hamiltonian of the system combines three-dimensional Heisenberg exchange interactions, anisotropy interactions, and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. Based on Monte Carlo simulations, we numerically demonstrate that the resulting Hamiltonian with an additional Zeeman field has a rich phase diagram with spiral, stripe, vortex crystal, and especially Skyrmion crystal spin textures in each xyxyxy-plane layer. The obtained Skyrmion crystals can be tunable with square and hexagonal symmetries in a columnar manner along the zzz axis, and moreover are stable against the interlayer spin-spin interactions in a large parameter region.
Cold atoms with laser-induced spin-orbit (SO) interactions provide a platform to explore quantum physics beyond natural conditions of solids. Here we propose and experimentally realize two-dimensional (2D) SO coupling and topological bands for a rubidium-87 degenerate gas through an optical Raman lattice, without phase-locking or fine-tuning of optical potentials. A controllable crossover between 2D and 1D SO couplings is studied, and the SO effects and nontrivial band topology are observed by measuring the atomic cloud distribution and spin texture in momentum space. Our realization of 2D SO coupling with advantages of small heating and topological stability opens a broad avenue in cold atoms to study exotic quantum phases, including topological superfluids.
In this work, we study strongly interacting spinor atoms in a lattice subject to a two dimensional (2d) anisotropic Rashba type of spin orbital coupling (SOC) and an Zeeman field. We find the interplay between the Zeeman field and the SOC provides a new platform to host rich and novel classes of quantum commensurate and in-commensurate phases, excitations and phase transitions. These commensurate phases include two collinear states at low and high Zeeman field, two co-planar canted states at mirror reflected SOC parameters respectively. Most importantly, there are non-coplanar incommensurate Skyrmion (IC-SkX) crystal phases surrounded by the four commensurate phases. New excitation spectra above all the five phases, especially on the IC-SKX phase are computed. Three different classes of quantum commensurate to in-commensurate transitions from the IC-SKX to its four neighboring commensurate phases are identified. Finite temperature behaviors and transitions are discussed. The critical temperatures of all the phases can be raised above that reachable by current cold atom cooling techniques simply by tuning the number of atoms N per site. In view of recent impressive experimental advances in generating 2d SOC for cold atoms in optical lattices, these new many-body phenomena can be explored in the current and near future cold atom experiments. Applications to various materials such as MnSi, Fe 0.5 Co 0.5 Si, especially the complex incommensurate magnetic ordering in Li 2 IrO 3 are given.
Supersolid is a long-sought exotic phase of matter, which is characterized by the coexistence of a diagonal long-range order of solid and an off-diagonal long-range order of superfluid. Possible candidates to realize such a phase have been previously considered, including hard-core bosons with long-range interaction and soft-core bosons. Here we demonstrate that an ultracold atomic condensate of hard-core bosons with contact interaction can establish a supersolid phase when simultaneously subjected to spin-orbit coupling and a spin-dependent periodic potential. This supersolid phase is accompanied by topologically nontrivial spin textures, and is signaled by the separation of momentum distribution peaks, which can be detected via time-of-flight measurements. We also discuss possibilities to produce and observe the supersolid phase for realistic experimental situations.