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arXiv:2108.10159 · Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics

Coherently Coupled Mixtures of Ultracold Atomic Gases

Alessio Recati, S. Stringari

Published Mar 10, 2022• 42 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

This article summarizes some of the relevant features exhibited by binary mixtures of Bose–Einstein condensates in the presence of coherent coupling at zero temperature. The coupling, which is experimentally produced by proper photon transitions, can involve either negligible momentum transfer from the electromagnetic radiation (Rabi coupling) or large momentum transfer (Raman coupling) associated with spin–orbit effects. The nature of the quantum phases exhibited by coherently coupled mixtures is discussed in detail, including their paramagnetic, ferromagnetic, and, in the case of spin–orbit coupling, supersolid phases. The behavior of the corresponding elementary excitations is discussed, with explicit emphasis on the novel features caused by the spin-like degree of freedom. Focus is further given to the topological excitations (solitons, vortices) as well as to the superfluid properties. This review also points out relevant open questions that deserve more systematic theoretical and experimental investigations.

DOI
10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-031820-121316

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This article summarizes some of the relevant features exhibited by binary mixtures of Bose–Einstein condensates in the presence of coherent coupling at zero temperature. The coupling, which is experimentally produced by proper photon transitions, can involve either negligible momentum transfer from the electromagnetic radiation (Rabi coupling) or large momentum transfer (Raman coupling) associated with spin–orbit effects. The nature of the quantum phases exhibited by coherently coupled mixtures is discussed in detail, including their paramagnetic, ferromagnetic, and, in the case of spin–orbit coupling, supersolid phases. The behavior of the corresponding elementary excitations is discussed, with explicit emphasis on the novel features caused by the spin-like degree of freedom. Focus is further given to the topological excitations (solitons, vortices) as well as to the superfluid properties. This review also points out relevant open questions that deserve more systematic theoretical and experimental investigations.
Abstract Since their first realization more than a decade ago spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates have been the subject of intense theoretical and experimental investigations. Spin-orbit coupling deeply modifies the equilibrium properties of the condensate, giving rise to novel configurations such as a supersolid stripe phase and a phase-separated plane-wave state. At the level of dynamics, both the frequency and the nature of the collective modes are significantly affected by the coupling with the spin degree of freedom. Here we review some of the most relevant advances in the field and provide our perspective on possible future research directions.
Artificial synthetic gauge field and spin-orbit coupling has been extensively studied following their experimental realization in ultracold atomic systems. Thanks for the versatile controllability, such systems not only provide possibilities to simulate and study important models in multidisciplinary fields of physics, but also work as an excellent platform to engineer novel states of matter and quantum phenomena. This paper reviews some recent progresses on the study of ultracold atomic systems with spin-orbit coupling, focusing on the effects induced by dissipation, novel interaction forms, large symmetry of spins, and long-range interactions. The investigation in these aspects is closely related to the characteristics of ultracold atomic systems, hence can bring new inspirations and perspectives on the understanding of spin-orbit coupling. In this review, we firstly investigate the appearance of a topological superradiant state in a quasi-one-dimensional Fermi gas with cavity-assisted Raman process. A cavity-assisted spin-orbit coupling and a bulk gap opening at half filling will be induced by the superradiant light generated in the transversely driven cavity mode. The topological superradiant state and the corresponding topological phase transition in the system can be driven by this mechanism. Then, symmetry-protected topological states of interacting fermions will be introduced in a quasi-one-dimensional cold gas of alkaline-earth-like atoms. Raman-assisted spin-orbit couplings in the clock states, together with the spin-exchange interactions in the clock-state manifolds will give rise to symmetry-protected topological states for interacting fermions, by taking advantage of the separation of orbital and nuclear-spin degrees of freedom in these alkaline-earth-like atoms. Furthermore, we show that an exotic topological defect, double-quantum spin vortices, which are characterized by doubly quantized circulating spin currents and unmagnetized filled cores, can exist in the ground states of SU(3) spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates. It is found that the combined effects of SU(3) spin-orbit coupling and spin-exchange interaction determine the ground-state phase diagram. Finally, we demonstrate that spin-orbit coupling and soft-core long-range interaction can induce an exotic supersolid phase of Bose gas, with the emergence of spontaneous circulating particle current. This implies that a finite angular momentum can be generated with neither external rotation nor synthetic magnetic field, and the direction of the angular momentum can be altered by adjusting the strength of spin-orbit coupling or interatomic interaction.
The experimental and theoretical research of spin–orbit-coupled ultracold atomic gases has advanced and expanded rapidly in recent years. Here, we review some of the progress that either was pioneered by our own work, has helped to lay the foundation, or has developed new and relevant techniques. After examining the experimental accessibility of all relevant spin–orbit coupling parameters, we discuss the fundamental properties and general applications of spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) over a wide range of physical situations. For the harmonically trapped case, we show that the ground state phase transition is a Dicke-type process and that spin–orbit-coupled BECs provide a unique platform to simulate and study the Dicke model and Dicke phase transitions. For a homogeneous BEC, we discuss the collective excitations, which have been observed experimentally using Bragg spectroscopy. They feature a roton-like minimum, the softening of which provides a potential mechanism to understand the ground state phase transition. On the other hand, if the collective dynamics are excited by a sudden quenching of the spin–orbit coupling parameters, we show that the resulting collective dynamics can be related to the famous Zitterbewegung in the relativistic realm. Finally, we discuss the case of a BEC loaded into a periodic optical potential. Here, the spin–orbit coupling generates isolated flat bands within the lowest Bloch bands whereas the nonlinearity of the system leads to dynamical instabilities of these Bloch waves. The experimental verification of this instability illustrates the lack of Galilean invariance in the system.
These lecture notes provide an introduction to Bose-Einstein condensates with Raman-induced spin-orbit coupling. Owing to the interplay between the peculiar single-particle dispersion, featuring a double-minimum structure, and the two-body interaction, these systems possess a complex phase diagram. Three different quantum phases can be observed, i.e., a stripe, a plane-wave, and a single-minimum phase, each characterized by different broken symmetries. The condensate dynamics is also significantly affected by the spin-orbit coupling, as revealed by the behavior of the Bogoliubov spectrum in infinite systems and the behavior of the discretized collective mode frequencies in trapped configurations, especially close to the phase transitions. In turn, the superfluid and rotational properties are also deeply modified by the coupling between the motional and spin degree of freedom. Finally, a special attention is devoted to the stripe phase and its supersolid character, which can be clearly revealed by the study of its dynamic features.
We discuss the superfluid properties of a uniform, weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensed gas with spin-orbit coupling, realized recently in experiments. We find a finite normal fluid density ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}$ at zero temperature which turns out to be a function of the Raman coupling. In particular, the entire fluid becomes normal at the transition point from the zero momentum to the plane wave phase, even though the condensate fraction remains finite. We emphasize the crucial role played by the breaking of Galilean invariance and by the gapped branch of the elementary excitations whose contribution to various sum rules is discussed explicitly. Our predictions for the superfluid density are successfully compared with the available experimental results based on the measurement of the sound velocities.
Supersolidity---a coexistence of superfluidity and crystalline or amorphous density variations---has been vividly debated ever since its conjecture. While the initial focus was on helium-4, recent experiments uncovered supersolidity in ultracold dipolar quantum gases. Here we propose a self-bound supersolid phase in a binary mixture of Bose gases with short-range interactions, making use of the nontrivial properties of spin-orbit coupling. We find that a first-order phase transition from a self-bound supersolid stripe phase to a zero-minimum droplet state of the Bose gas occurs as a function of the Rabi coupling strength. These phases are characterized using the momentum distribution, the transverse spin polarization, and the superfluid fraction. The critical point of the transition is estimated in an analytical framework. The predicted density-modulated supersolid stripe and zero-minimum droplet phase should be experimentally observable in a binary mixture of 39K^{39}\mathrm{K}39K with spin-orbit coupling.