Stueckelberg interferometry using periodically driven spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

Coherent control of reactants remains a long-standing challenge in quantum chemistry. In particular, we have studied laser-induced molecular formation (photoassociation) in a Raman-dressed spin-orbit-coupled ^{87}Rb Bose-Einstein condensate, whose spin quantum state is a superposition of multiple bare spin components. In contrast to the notably different photoassociation-induced fractional atom losses observed for the bare spin components of a statistical mixture, a superposition state with a comparable spin composition displays the same fractional loss on every spin component. We interpret this as the superposition state itself undergoing photoassociation. For superposition states induced by a large Raman coupling and zero Raman detuning, we observe a nearly complete suppression of the photoassociation rate. This suppression is consistent with a model based upon quantum destructive interference between two photoassociation pathways for colliding atoms with different spin combinations. This model also explains the measured dependence of the photoassociation rate on the Raman detuning at a moderate Raman coupling. Our work thus suggests that preparing atoms in quantum superpositions may represent a powerful new technique to coherently control photochemical reactions.

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“…For more details of our setup, see Refs. [25,26]. Our Raman coupling scheme is largely similar to previous works [27,28].…”

mentioning

confidence: 59%

Observation of Quantum Interference and Coherent Control in a Photochemical Reaction

et al. 2018

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Section: A Double-passage: Adiabatic-impulse Modelmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…By measuring the Stückelberg interference fringes one can map out the novel band structure with SO coupling [23,33]. Compared with the experiment [33], here the Raman coupling is not periodically modulated. However, in the scenario with an optical lattice, it can have the effect of engineering the dispersion and realizing two avoided crossings, thus making Stückelberg interference feasible.…”

Section: A Double-passage: Adiabatic-impulse Modelmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, in the scenario with an optical lattice, it can have the effect of engineering the dispersion and realizing two avoided crossings, thus making Stückelberg interference feasible. The interference fringes in [33] rely on the frequency and amplitude of the periodical modulation applied on the Raman beams, showing the effect of Floquet engineering on SO-coupled bands. Here the physics underlying Stückelberg interference is the presence of synthetic magnetic flux.…”

Section: A Double-passage: Adiabatic-impulse Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently a periodically driven SO-coupled atomic BEC in free space was used to implement Stückelberg interference [33]. Using periodic modulation of Raman coupling to create a pair of avoided crossings in the energy dispersion, the resulting interference fringes become modulation frequency dependent.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stückelberg interferometry using spin-orbit-coupled cold atoms in an optical lattice

Liang

Zhang

et al. 2020

Phys. Rev. A

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Time evolution of spin-orbit-coupled cold atoms in an optical lattice is studied, with a two-band energy spectrum having two avoided crossings. A force is applied such that the atoms experience two consecutive Landau-Zener tunnelings while transversing the avoided crossings. Stückelberg interference arises from the phase accumulated during the adiabatic evolution between the two tunnelings. This phase is gauge field dependent and thus provides new opportunities to measure the synthetic gauge field, which is verified via calculation of spin transition probabilities after a double-passage process. Time-dependent and time-averaged spin probabilities are derived, in which resonances are found. We also demonstrate chiral Bloch oscillation and rich spin-momentum locking behavior in this system.

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Approximate nonlinear wave solutions of the coupled two-component Gross–Pitaevskii equations with spin–orbit interaction

Belobo

Meier

2021

New J. Phys.

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Recent experimental observations of spin–orbit coupling (SOC) in Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) open the way for investigating novel physics of nonlinear waves with promising applications in atomic physics and condensed matter physics. The interplay between atomic interactions and SOC are crucial for the understanding of the dynamics of nonlinear waves in BECs with SOC. Here, in the small linear coupling regime, an approach is presented which allows us to derive an infinite number of novel approximate solutions of the Gross–Pitaevskii equations (GPEs) in one and two dimensions including SOCs, time-dependent external potentials, and nonlinearities leading to breathers and periodic as well as quasiperiodic nonlinear waves. To verify the theoretical predictions we perform numerical simulations which show for several cases a very good agreement with the analytics. For the case of one spatial dimension, it is shown that functions describing the external potential and nonlinearities cannot be chosen independently. The management of the solutions is clarified along with some important physical properties such as Josephson oscillations and Rosen–Zener oscillations.

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Stueckelberg interferometry using periodically driven spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

Cited by 11 publications

References 36 publications

Observation of Quantum Interference and Coherent Control in a Photochemical Reaction

Observation of Quantum Interference and Coherent Control in a Photochemical Reaction

Stückelberg interferometry using spin-orbit-coupled cold atoms in an optical lattice

Approximate nonlinear wave solutions of the coupled two-component Gross–Pitaevskii equations with spin–orbit interaction

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