Controlled creation of spin domains in spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates by phase separation

Abstract

A method of controlled creation of spin domains in spin-1 antiferromagnetic Bose-Einstein condensates is demonstrated. The method exploits the phenomenon of phase separation of spin components in an external potential. By using an appropriate time-dependent potential, a composition of spin domains can be created, as demonstrated in the particular cases of a double well and a periodic potential. In contrast to other methods, which rely on spatially inhomogeneous magnetic fields, here the domain structure is completely determined by the optical fields, which makes the method versatile and reconfigurable. It allows for creation of domains of various sizes, with the spatial resolution limited by the spin healing length only.

Spin domains in ground state of a trapped spin-1 condensate: a general study under Thomas–Fermi approximation

“…Spin domain formation in an optically trapped sodium spinor condensate has been reported by Stenger et al, [2] followed by a detailed theoretical justification by Isoshima et al [3]. A number of theoretical investigations have followed since then to describe the spin domain formation of trapped spin-1 condensate in many different ways [4][5][6][7], even at zero magnetic field [8,9]. T-L Ho and VB Shenoy have given a detailed picture of binary condensates, for which phase separation arises due to the interplay between intra-and interspecies interaction [10].…”

“…al., [3]. A number of theoretical investigations have followed since then to understand the spin domain formation of trapped spin-1 condensate in many different ways [4][5][6][7], even at zero magnetic field [8,9]. T.-L Ho and V.B Shenoy gave a detailed picture of binary condensates, for which phase separation arises due to the interplay between intra-and inter-species interaction [10].…”

A variational approach for the ground state profile of a trapped spinor-BEC: A detailed study of phase transition in spin-1 condensate at zero magnetic field

“…So to find the number density and corresponding energy density for PM and APM states one can plug in p = 0 and q = 0 and solve Eq. (7)(8) in the following manner.…”

“…By applying small magnetic field one can manipulate the population of different spin components by tuning linear and quadratic Zeeman terms, thus producing rich phase diagrams characteristic to the system. This easy tunability of magnetic terms paved the way of growing interest of exploring phase transition [7], phase separation and domain formation of different stationary phases [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Many associated phenomena arise including excitation, instabilities and associated quasi-particles across phase boundaries [27,28].…”

Existence, Stability and Dynamics of Monopole and Alice Ring Solutions in Anti-Ferromagnetic Spinor Condensates

“…Indeed, at the one-dimensional (1D) level, both magnetic and non-magnetic structures have been theoretically proposed and experimentally observed [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] whence the phase diagram [23], as well as multi-soliton collisions [24] of some of these structures have been theoretically explored and experimentally quantified. The presence of the spin degree of freedom has also enabled the observation of spin domains [25,26] and spin textures [27,28]. Although there are numerous topological and vortical structures that have been uncovered in this setting [29][30][31][32][33], including even quantum knots [34,35], our focus herein will be on the existence, stability and dynamical properties of elusive structures that have recently found a fertile ground for their creation in this spinor setting, namely monopoles [36][37][38] and Alice rings [39].…”