Artificial spin-orbit coupling in neutral cold atom have been experimentally implemented in alkali-metal atoms. Nowadays people begin to explore its possible applications. One of the most interesting applications is the atomic mirror, which is a key element in atom optics. And spin-orbit coupling provides the atomic beam with the possibility that the atomic spin can flip during its propagation, thus can be used to prepare the quantum-state-selective atomic mirror. In 2008, Juzeliūnas, et al. [Juzeliūnas G, et al. 2008 Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 200405] studied a spin-orbit-coupled matter wave packet of cold atom gas impinging on an infinite step potential created by the optical light field. Results showed that there is not only ordinary specular reflection, but also non-specular one. The reflected atoms split into two beams and double reflection takes place. Based on the previous study, here we consider a matter wave packet of spin-orbit-coupled cold atom gas impinging on a finite step potential created by the optical light field. Due to the effect of the spin-orbit coupling, in addition to the propagating state, the eigenstates of cold atoms include evanescent state and oscillating evanescent state. Under suitable conditions double reflection will take place. If there are just evanescent waves in the step potential, total internal reflection will take place. In other words, when there is propagating wave in the step potential, partial reflection will take place. By taking into account both the total internal reflection and partial reflection, we study not only the polarization rate but also the reflectivity each as a function of incident energy, incident angle and spin-orbit coupling strength. The properties different from those of previous studies are found. In the case of total internal reflection, we find that the polarization rate of the reflected atoms is sensitive to incident angle instead of the spin-orbit coupling strength and incident energy. While in the case of partial reflection, all these factors strongly affect the polarization rate and reflectivity. We carefully study these properties and find that, on one hand, high efficiency atomic mirror can be acquired in the case of total internal reflection, and on the other hand, we can acquire the different polarization rates by adjusting the incident angle, the spin-orbit coupling strength and incident energy in the case of partial reflection.
An effective spin-orbit coupling can be generated in a cold atom system by engineering atom-light interactions. In this Letter we study spin-1/2 and spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, and find that the condensate wave function will develop nontrivial structures. From numerical simulation we have identified two different phases. In one phase the ground state is a single plane wave, and often we find the system splits into domains and an array of vortices plays the role of a domain wall. In this phase, time-reversal symmetry is broken. In the other phase the condensate wave function is a standing wave, and it forms a spin stripe. The transition between them is driven by interactions between bosons. We also provide an analytical understanding of these results and determine the transition point between the two phases.
We consider a matter wave packet of cold atom gas impinging upon a step potential created by an optical light field. In the presence of spin-orbit coupling, the atomic eigenstates contain two types of evanescent states, one of which is an ordinary evanescent state with a pure imaginary wave vector while the other possesses a complex wave vector and is recognized as an oscillating evanescent state. We show that the presence and interplay of these two types of evanescent states can give rise to two different mechanisms for total internal reflection, and thus lead to an unusual Goos-H\"anchen (GH) effect. As a result, not only large positive but also large negative GH shifts can be observed in the reflected atomic beam. The dependence of the GH shift on the incident angle, energy, and height of the step potential is studied numerically.
The coupling between the spin degrees of freedom and the orbital angular momentum has a profound effect on the properties of nuclei, atoms, and condensed-matter systems. Recently, synthetic gauge fields have been realized experimentally in neutral cold-atom systems, giving rise to a spin-orbit coupling term with ``strength''
kso. This paper investigates the interplay between the single-particle spin-orbit coupling term of Rashba type and the short-range two-body
s-wave interaction for cold atoms under external confinement. Specifically, we consider two different harmonically trapped two-atom systems. The first system consists of an atom with spin-orbit coupling that interacts with a structureless particle through a short-range two-body potential. The second system consists of two atoms that both feel the spin-orbit coupling term and that interact through a short-range two-body potential. Treating the spin-orbit term perturbatively, we determine the correction to the ground-state energy for various generic parameter combinations. Selected excited states are also treated. An important aspect of our study is that the perturbative treatment is not limited to small
s-wave scattering lengths but provides insights into the system behavior over a wide range of scattering lengths, including the strongly interacting unitary regime. We find that the interplay between the spin-orbit coupling term and the
s-wave interaction generically enters, depending on the exact parameter combinations of the
s-wave scattering lengths, at order
kso2 or
kso4 for the ground state and leads to a shift of the energy of either sign. While the absence of a term proportional to
kso follows straightforwardly from the functional form of the spin-orbit coupling term, the absence of a term proportional to
kso2 for certain parameter combinations is unexpected. The well-known fact that the spin-orbit coupling term couples the relative and center-of-mass degrees of freedom has interesting consequences for the trapped two-particle systems. For example, we find that, for certain parameter combinations, the spin-orbit coupling term turns sharp crossings into avoided crossings with an energy splitting proportional to
kso. Our perturbative results are confirmed by numerical calculations that expand the eigenfunctions of the two-particle Hamiltonian in terms of basis functions that contain explicitly correlated Gaussians.
The recent realization of synthetic spin-orbit coupling represents an outstanding achievement in the physics of ultracold quantum gases. In this review we explore the properties of a spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate with equal Rashba and Dresselhaus strengths. This system presents a rich phase diagram, which exhibits a tricritical point separating a zero-momentum phase, a spin-polarized plane-wave phase, and a stripe phase. In the stripe phase translational invariance is spontaneously broken, in analogy with supersolids. Spin-orbit coupling also strongly affects the dynamics of the system. In particular, the excitation spectrum exhibits intriguing features, including the suppression of the sound velocity, the emergence of a roton minimum in the plane-wave phase, and the appearance of a double gapless band structure in the stripe phase. Finally, we discuss a combined procedure to make the stripes visible and stable, thus allowing for a direct experimental detection.
Supersolidity, characterized by superfluidity and crystallization, is an exotic state of matter. The spin-orbit- (SO-) coupled Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) provide an ideal paradigm for exploring this quantum state. Here, we present a theoretical analysis of the ground-state phases and collective modes of supersolid SO-coupled BECs in a harmonic trap. The phase diagram of three ground-state phases (i.e., the supersolid phase, plane-wave phase, and zero-momentum phase) is obtained analytically under the condition $\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\ll}{k}_{0}$ (here, $\ensuremath{\omega}$ is harmonic trap frequency,
k0 is SO-coupling strength), showing the spin polarization, the phase diagram, and the contrast of the supersolid stripes can be effectively manipulated by trapping potential. An efficient scheme to manipulate the supersolid phase is provided. Furthermore, with particular discussion of the supersolid phase, the collective modes in all three phases are obtained with a unified approach, and softening of both dipole and breathing modes with divergence of effective mass at phase transition point is explained analytically and well confirmed by direct numerical simulations. The impact of SO coupling on local currents during the breathing mode is discussed. The anharmonic collective modes are also revealed with the appearance of the flat band in the single-particle dispersion, especially when SO-coupling strength is comparable with trapping potential. Our theoretical method provides a clear physical picture that collective modes of SO-coupled BECs can be regarded as classical harmonic oscillators with an effective mass containing the SO coupling.