Position-dependent spin-orbit coupling for ultracold atoms

Published

February 18, 2015

Author(s)

Ian B. Spielman, Shih Wei Su, Shih-Chuan Gou, Ihe-Kau Liu, Luis Santos, Arturas Acus, Algirdas Mekys, Gediminas Juzeliunas

Abstract

We theoretically explore atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) subject to position-dependent spin-orbit coupling (SOC). This SOC can be produced by cyclically Raman coupling four internal atomic ground (or metastable) states in an environment where the detuning from two-photon Raman resonance depends on position. The resulting spin-orbit coupled BEC phase-separates into domains, each of which contain density modulations—stripes—aligned either along the x or y direction. In each domain, the stripe orientation is determined by the sign of the local Raman detuning. When these stripes have mismatched spatial periods along domain boundaries, non-trivial topological spin textures form at the interface, including vortices and anti-vortices. In contrast to vortices present in conventional rotating BECs, these spin-vortices are stable topological defects that are not present in the corresponding homogenous stripe-phase spin-orbit coupled BECs.

Citation

New Journal of Physics

Pub Type

Journals

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DOI Link

Keywords

artificial gauge field, Bose Einstein Condensate, domain wall

Citation

Spielman, I. , , S. , Gou, S. , Liu, I. , Santos, L. , Acus, A. , Mekys, A. and Juzeliunas, G. (2015), Position-dependent spin-orbit coupling for ultracold atoms, New Journal of Physics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/17/3/033045 (Accessed April 18, 2024)