Tunable atomic spin-orbit coupling synthesized with a modulating gradient magnetic field

Luo, Xinyu; Wu, Ling-Na; Chen, Jiyao; Guan, Qing Qing; Gao, Kaixiong; Xu, Zhi-Fang; You, Li; Wang, Ruquan

doi:10.1038/srep18983

Cited by 109 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(111 reference statements)

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“…The Purdue group used a SOC 87 Rb BEC to study the physics of Landau-Zener tunneling [25] and to implement interferometry by periodically modulating the power of the laser beams that generate SOC [26]. Finally, the Institute of Physics (IOP) group in Beijing generated SOC in a BEC of 87 Rb atoms by modulating magnetic field gradients [37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Properties of spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates

et al. 2016

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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.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Properties of spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates

et al. 2016

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“…Experimentally, spin-orbit coupling for spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) has been realized recently [29,30] and interesting magnetism physics has been observed [31][32][33][34][35]. Mathematically, it is well known that there exist not only spin vectors, but also spin tensors [e.g., irreducible rank-2 spin-quadrupole tensor N ij = (F i F j + F j F i ) /2 − δ ij F 2 /3] in a large spin (≥ 1) system.…”

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confidence: 99%

Spin-Tensor–Momentum-Coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates

2017

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The recent experimental realization of spin-orbit coupling for ultracold atomic gases provides a powerful platform for exploring many interesting quantum phenomena. In these studies, spin represents spin vector (spin-1/2 or spin-1) and orbit represents linear momentum. Here we propose a scheme to realize a new type of spin-tensor-momentum coupling (STMC) in spin-1 ultracold atomic gases. We study the ground state properties of interacting Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) with STMC and find interesting new types of stripe superfluid phases and multicritical points for phase transitions. Furthermore, STMC makes it possible to study quantum states with dynamical stripe orders that display density modulation with a long tunable period and high visibility, paving the way for direct experimental observation of a new dynamical supersolid-like state.. Our scheme for generating STMC can be generalized to other systems and may open the door for exploring novel quantum physics and device applications.Introduction.-The coupling between matter and gauge field plays a crucial role for many fundamental quantum phenomena and practical device applications in condensed matter [1][2][3] and atomic physics [4]. A prominent example is the spin-orbit coupling, the coupling between a particle's spin and orbit (e.g., momentum) degrees of freedom, which is responsible for important physics such as topological insulators and superconductors [2,3]. In this context, recent experimental realization of spin-orbit coupling in ultracold atomic gases [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] opens a completely new avenue for investigating quantum many-body physics under gauge field [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28].So far in most works on spin-orbit coupling in solid state and cold atomic systems, the spin degrees of freedom are taken as rank-1 spin vectors F i (i = x, y, z), such as electron spin-1/2 or pseudospins formed by atomic hyperfine states that can be large (e.g., spin-1 or 3/2). Experimentally, spin-orbit coupling for spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) has been realized recently [29,30] and interesting magnetism physics has been observed [31][32][33][34][35]. Mathematically, it is well known that there exist not only spin vectors, but also spin tensors [e.g., irreducible rank-2 spin-quadrupole tensorin a large spin (≥ 1) system. Therefore two natural questions are: i ) Can the coupling between spin tensors of particles and their linear momenta be realized in experiments? ii ) What new physics may emerge from such spin-tensor-momentum coupling (STMC)?In this Letter, we address these two questions by proposing a simple experimental scheme for realizing STMC for spin-1 ultracold atomic gases. Our scheme is based on slight modification of previous experimental setup [29] and is experimentally feasible. The STMC changes the band structure dramatically, leading to interesting new physics in the presence of many-body interactions between atoms. Although both bosons and fermions can be studied, here we only consider spi...

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“…In particular, SOC links a particle's spin with its momentum, which is not only essential in novel quantum phenomena, such as spintronic effect [4] and exotic topological states of quantum matter [5,6], but also provides an unprecedented quantum system such as spin-half spin-orbit coupled bosons without analogy in condensed-matter [7]. Various types of SOCs can be generated in ultracold atoms where the relevant parameters are tunable by changing the laser fields [8][9][10] or the magnetic field [11]. So far, the SOCs along the one direction have been created in bosonic alkali [7,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], fermionic alkali atoms [20][21][22][23], and very recently in fermionic lanthanide atoms [24].…”

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Spin-orbit-coupled two-electron Fermi gases of ytterbium atoms

Song

Zhang

et al. 2016

Phys. Rev. A

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We demonstrate all-optical implementation of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in a two-electron Fermi gas of 173 Yb atoms by coupling two hyperfine ground states with a narrow optical transition. Due to the SU(N ) symmetry of the 1 S0 ground-state manifold which is insensitive to external magnetic fields, an optical AC Stark effect is applied to split the ground spin states, which exhibits a high stability compared with experiments on alkali and lanthanide atoms, and separate out an effective spin-1/2 subspace from other hyperfine levels for the realization of SOC. The dephasing spin dynamics when a momentum-dependent spin-orbit gap being suddenly opened and the asymmetric momentum distribution of the spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas are observed as a hallmark of SOC. The realization of all-optical SOC for ytterbium fermions should offer a new route to a long-lived spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas and greatly expand our capability in studying novel spin-orbit physics with alkaline-earth-like atoms.Ultracold atoms are fascinating for the study of synthetic quantum system which is direct analogy to real electronic material [1]. One of the notable examples is the implementation of synthetic gauge field and spinorbit coupling (SOC) engineered with the atom-light interaction at will [2,3]. In particular, SOC links a particle's spin with its momentum, which is not only essential in novel quantum phenomena, such as spintronic effect [4] and exotic topological states of quantum matter [5,6], but also provides an unprecedented quantum system such as spin-half spin-orbit coupled bosons without analogy in condensed-matter [7]. Various types of SOCs can be generated in ultracold atoms where the relevant parameters are tunable by changing the laser fields [8][9][10] or the magnetic field [11]. So far, the SOCs along the one direction have been created in bosonic alkali [7,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], fermionic alkali atoms [20][21][22][23], and very recently in fermionic lanthanide atoms [24]. Besides the 1D SOC, the two-dimensional synthetic SOCs have been also demonstrated both in the bosonic [25] and fermionic alkali atoms [26].In alkali atoms, two different internal states are coupled through the Raman transition transferring momentum to the atoms [2,3]. However those processes inevitably suffer from heating effect caused by spontaneous emission due to the small fine-structure splitting of the excited level, which could limit the ability to observe interacting many-body phenomena that needs long timescales. Recently to avoid such heating, the specific atomic species with the large ground-state angular momentum such as 161 Dy have been considered [27,28] or the external orbital states, representing pseudo-spins, in optical superlattices have been used to generate SOC [29,30].Here, we expand our capability in exploring a novel SOC physics by implementing SOC with a narrow optical transition in a non-alkali Fermi gas of ytterbium atoms. With a momentum-dependent spin-orbit gap being suddenly opened by switching on the Raman transitio...

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Tunable atomic spin-orbit coupling synthesized with a modulating gradient magnetic field

Cited by 109 publications

References 61 publications

Properties of spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates

Properties of spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates

Spin-Tensor–Momentum-Coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates

Spin-orbit-coupled two-electron Fermi gases of ytterbium atoms

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