Synthetic Spin-Orbit Coupling in Two-Level Cold Atoms

Abstract

Synthetic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in controlled quantum systems such as cold atoms or trapped ions has been of great interest. Here we show, both theoretically and computationally, a simplest realization of SOC using two-level cold atoms interacting with only one laser beam. The underlying mechanism is based upon the non-adiabatic nature of laser-atom interaction, with the Rabi frequency and atom's kinetic energy being comparable to each other. We use the Zitterbewegung (ZB) oscillation to further illustrate the effects of the synthesized SOC on the quantum dynamics of the two-level cold atoms. We expect our proposal to be of experimental interest in quantum simulation of SOC-related physics.

Dynamically Characterizing the Structures of Dirac Points via Wave Packets

“…From the dynamics of a single wave packet we show that the winding number can be inferred from the motion of the wave packet's center of mass and spin texture, providing a dynamical framework to characterize the topological band structures. [26][27][28][29] Model and Band Structures. Within the tight-binding approximation, the Hamiltonian of the graphene can be written as 𝐻 = ∑︀ 𝑚𝑛 𝑐 † 𝑚 𝐽𝑚𝑛𝑐𝑛, where 𝑐 and 𝑐 † are the creation and annihilation operators of each lattice site, and 𝐽𝑚𝑛 characterize the hopping between lattices sites.…”