We address the impact of spin-orbit coupling on the existence and properties of topological edge states of cold neutral atoms and Bose-Einstein condensates loaded in honeycomb Zeeman lattices---lattices where the spinor components are placed in potentials having opposite signs. We find that the type of spin-orbit-coupling mechanism has profound effect on the emergence of topological edge states. We also reveal that edge states persist when interatomic interactions are present and that they become metastable in Bose-Einstein condensates.
We address the impact of spin-orbit coupling on the existence and properties of topological edge states of cold neutral atoms and Bose-Einstein condensates loaded in honeycomb Zeeman lattices---lattices where the spinor components are placed in potentials having opposite signs. We find that the type of spin-orbit-coupling mechanism has profound effect on the emergence of topological edge states. We also reveal that edge states persist when interatomic interactions are present and that they become metastable in Bose-Einstein condensates.
Since the first experimental realization of Bose-Einstein condensates in a spin-orbit-coupled Zeeman lattice, a wide range of applications have been found in these systems. Here, we systematically study the ground-state phase diagram of the systems. The spin-orbit-coupled Zeeman lattice generates multiple energy minima in the lowest Bloch band. These minima may locate at Brillouin-zone edges and center, or inside the Brillouin zone. Interacting atoms condensing into these minima constitute ground-state quantum phases. Among these phases, the band-edge condensation states have no analog in either spin-orbit-coupled homogeneous systems or lattice systems without the spin-orbit coupling. They exist in a very broad parameter regime of the spin-orbit-coupled Zeeman lattice system. We address superfluidity of the band-edge states by analyzing their elementary excitations and superfluid fraction.
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 or conventional topological insulators interfaced with conventional superconductors.
Abstract We investigate the ground-state properties of spin–orbit (SO)-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates confined in a spin-dependent asymmetric potential composed of harmonic and quartic contributions. The combined effect of the two potentials gives rise to an effective spatially inhomogeneous Zeeman field along the z -direction, and the complex competition among SO coupling, interatomic interactions, and this effective field leads to the emergence of nontrivial topological phases and complex spin textures in the system. For weak interatomic interactions, as the SO coupling strength increases, the system undergoes a series of transitions between ground-state phases: from a spin-polarized state, to an Anderson–Toulouse (AT) vortex state, a high-order radial dark soliton state, and finally to a domain structure. For strong interatomic interactions, the condensate evolves from a spin-polarized state to an AT vortex state, and then to a spatially coexisting state of AT and Mermin–Ho vortices, which corresponds to a novel topological excitation in pseudospin space: a skyrmion-dominated texture embedded with circular-hyperbolic antimeron pairs, realizing the coexistence and nesting of multiple topological defects. For sufficiently strong SO coupling, both components eventually evolve into similar multiring-shaped higher-order radial dark soliton states, with the number of soliton rings increasing as the SO coupling strength increases. Our results enrich the ground-state phases and topological excitations of cold atomic systems and provide new insights for exploring and manipulating nontrivial topological excitations in such systems.
A finite-size quasi-two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate collapses if the attraction between atoms is sufficiently strong. Here we present a theory of collapse for condensates with the interatomic attraction and spin-orbit coupling. We consider two realizations of spin-orbit coupling: the axial Rashba coupling and the balanced, effectively one-dimensional Rashba-Dresselhaus one. In both cases spin-dependent ``anomalous'' velocity, proportional to the spin-orbit-coupling strength, plays a crucial role. For the Rashba coupling, this velocity forms a centrifugal component in the density flux opposite to that arising due to the attraction between particles and prevents the collapse at a sufficiently strong coupling. For the balanced Rashba-Dresselhaus coupling, the spin-dependent velocity can spatially split the initial state in one dimension and form spin-projected wave packets, reducing the total condensate density. Depending on the spin-orbit-coupling strength, interatomic attraction, and initial state, this splitting either prevents the collapse or modifies the collapse process. These results show that the collapse can be controlled by a spin-orbit coupling, thus extending the domain of existence of condensates of attracting atoms.
Abstract The equal Rashba-Dresselhaus (ERD) spin-orbit coupling, as the first type to be implemented in cold atom experiments, provides a unique platform for exploring topological quantum phases. This work investigates the ground state of a two-dimensional Fermi gas featuring both ERD coupling and a Zeeman field, mapping out its topological phase diagram throughout the BCS-BEC crossover. We classify the homogeneous superfluid phases into topologically trivial gapped or nontrivial gapless phase based on the nodal structure of the quasiparticle excitation spectrum. We reveal the evolution of topological superfluid states under various conditions by systematically characterizing the phase distribution across key parameters including the spin-orbit coupling strength, two-body binding energy, Zeeman field, and chemical potential. Our findings indicate that spin-orbit coupling enhances triplet pairing and stabilizes the gapless superfluid phase. Moreover, small binding energy, and strong Zeeman field are found to promote the emergence of the gapless phase, particularly the US-II phase identified in this work. These results elucidate the phase transition mechanisms in low-dimensional quantum systems.
Cold atomic Bose-Einstein systems in the presence of simulated Rashba- Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling exhibit novel physical features. With pure in-plane Rashba coupling the system is predicted in Bogoliubov-Hartree-Fock to have a stable Bose condensate below a critical temperature, even though the effective density of states is two-dimensional. In addition the system has a normal state at all temperatures. We review here the new physics when the system has such spin-orbit coupling, and discuss the nature of the finite temperature condensation phase transition from the normal to condensed phases.