Interaction driven exotic quantum phases in spin-orbit coupled lattice spin¿1 bosons

Published

May 19, 2016

Author(s)

Ian B. Spielman, Jedediah Pixley, Stefan Natu, Sankar Das Sarma

Abstract

We study the interplay between large-spin, spin-orbit coupling, and superfluidity for bosons in a two dimensional optical lattice, focusing on the spin-1 spin-orbit coupled system recently realized at the Joint Quantum Institute [Campbell et. al., arXiv:1501.05984]. We find a rich quantum phase diagram, where, in addition to the conventional phases — superfluid and insulator— contained in the spin-1 Bose-Hubbard model, there are new lattice symmetry breaking phases. For weak interactions, the interplay between two length scales, the lattice momentum and the spin-orbit wave-vector induce a phase transition from a uniform superfluid to a phase where bosons simultaneously condense at the center and edge of the Brillouin zone at a non-zero spin-orbit strength. This state is characterized by spin density wave order, which arises from the spin-1 nature of the system. Interactions suppress spin density wave order, and favor a superfluid only at the Brillouin zone edge. This state has spatially oscillating mean field order parameters, but a homogeneous density. We show that the spin density wave superfluid phase survives in a two dimensional harmonic trap, and thus establish that our results are directly applicable to experiments on 87Rb, 7Li, and 41K.

Citation

Physical Review B

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

artificial gauge field, Bose Einstein condensate

Citation

Spielman, I. , Pixley, J. , Natu, S. and Das, S. (2016), Interaction driven exotic quantum phases in spin-orbit coupled lattice spin¿1 bosons, Physical Review B (Accessed September 12, 2024)