Transport behaviour of a Bose Einstein condensate in a bichromatic optical lattice

We investigate the Bloch and dipole oscillations of a Bose Einstein condensate (BEC) in an optical superlattice. We show that, as the effective mass increases in an optical superlattice, the BEC is localized in accordance with recent experimental observations [J.E. Lye et. al. Phys. Rev. A 75, 061603 (2007)]. In addition, we find that the secondary optical lattice is a useful additional tool to manipulate the dynamics of the atoms.      

Classifying the ground-state phases of spin–orbit coupled spin-2 Bose–Einstein condensate in momentum space

The ground-state phases of two-dimensional spin-2 Bose–Einstein condensate with Rashba spin–orbit coupling are studied. For the equal strengths of the density-density interaction and the spin-exchange interaction, we classify the ground-state phases into four types of stable phases with spin–orbit coupling and spin singlet-pairing interaction in momentum space, i.e., the ring phase, the stripe phase, the triangular phase and the square phase. With increasing the spin–orbit coupling strength, the system undergoes a sequence phase transitions from the ring phase to the stripe phase, and to the square phase for the attractive spin singlet-pairing interaction ($c_2<0$), and the system undergoes a sequence phase transitions from the ring phase to the stripe phase, to the triangular phase, and to the square phase for the repulsive spin singlet-pairing interaction ($c_2>0$).     

Instability of a two-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensate with Rashba spin–orbit coupling at finite temperature

We prove that in a two-dimensional homogeneous boson system with Rashba spin–orbit coupling, Bose–Einstein condensate with plane-wave order is unstable at finite temperature. The calculations are based on a nonlinear sigma model scheme. The density wave contributions to the thermal deletions are divergent in the infrared limit. The behavior of the divergence is different from that without spin–orbit coupling.     

Energetic and dynamical instability of spin–orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate in a deep optical lattice

We investigate the energetic and dynamical instability of spin–orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate in a deep optical lattice via a tight-binding model. The stability phase diagram is completely revealed in full parameter space, while the dependence of superfluidity on the dispersion relation is illustrated explicitly. In the absence of spin–orbit coupling, the superfluidity only exists in the center of the Brillouin zone. However, the combination of spin–orbit coupling, Zeeman field, nonlinearity and optical lattice potential can modify the dispersion relation of the system, and change the position of Brillouin zone for generating the superfluidity. Thus, the superfluidity can appear in either the center or the other position of the Brillouin zone. Namely, in the center of the Brillouin zone, the system is either superfluid or Landau unstable, which depends on the momentum of the lowest energy. Therefore, the superfluidity can occur at optional position of the Brillouin zone by elaborating spin–orbit coupling, Zeeman splitting, nonlinearity and optical lattice potential. For the linear case, the system is always dynamically stable, however, the nonlinearity can induce the dynamical instability, and also expand the superfluid region. These predicted results can provide a theoretical evidence for exploring the superfluidity of the system experimentally.     

Stationary states and rotational properties of spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates held under a toroidal trap

We consider a pseudospin-1/2 Bose–Einstein condensate with Rashba spin–orbit coupling in a two-dimensional toroidal trap. By solving the damped Gross–Pitaevskii equations for this system, we show that the system exhibits a rich variety of stationary states, such as vehicle wheel and flower-petal stripe patterns. These stationary states are stable against perturbation with thermal energy and can survive for a long time. In the presence of rotation, our results show that the rotating systems have exotic vortex configurations. These phenomenon originates from the interplay among spin–orbit coupling, trap geometry, and rotation.     

Tunneling of Bose-Einstein condensate and interference effect in a harmonic trap with a Gaussian energy barrier

The tunneling effect of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a harmonic trap with a Gaussian energy barrier is studied in this paper. The initial condensate evolves into two separate moving condensates after the tunneling time under certain conditions. The interference pattern between the two moving condensates is given as a comparison and as a further demonstration of the existence of the global phase.     

Transport dynamics of an interacting binary Bose Einstein condensate in an incommensurate optical lattice

We investigate the transport dynamics of an interacting binary Bose-Einstein condensate in an incommensurate optical lattice and predict a novel splitting of a matter wavepacket induced by disorder potential and inter-species interaction. The effect of atomic interaction on the dynamics of the mobile and localized atoms are also studied in detail. We also discuss the behavior of the balanced and inbalanced mixtures in the incommensurate optical lattice.     

Tunneling of a Dipolar Bose–Einstein Condensate in an Optical Lattice

We have studied the tunneling and fluctuations of a dipolar Bose–Einstein condensate in an optical lattice, it is found that there exist the tunneling and fluctuations between lattices l and l+1, l and l−1, respectively. In particular, when the optical lattice is infinitely long and the spin excitations are in the long-wavelength limit, tunneling effects disappear between lattices l and l+1, and that l and l−1, in this case the fluctuations are a constant, and the magnetic soliton appears.     

Wannier–Stark chaos of a Bose–Einstein condensate in 1D optical lattices

Using the idea of the macroscopic quantum wave function and the definition of the Melnikov chaos, we investigate the spatially chaotic features of a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) in a Wannier–Stark potential for the trivial phase and the non-trivial phase cases. The perturbed chaotic solutions are constructed, and the chaotic and unstable regions on the parameter space are illustrated. Numerical calculations to the spatial evolutions of the atomic number density and the energy density demonstrate the analytical results and exhibit the chaotic spatial distribution and energy distribution of the BEC atoms.     

Spin-orbit coupling in Bose-Einstein condensate and degenerate Fermi gases

We review our recent experimental realization and investigation of a spin orbit （SO） coupled Bose Einstein condensate （BEC） and quantum degenerate Fermi gas. By using two counter-propagathlg Ranlan lasers and controlling the different frequency of two R,aman lasers to engineer the atom light interaction, we first study the SO coupling in BEC. Then we study SO coupling in Fermi gas. We, observe the spin dephasing in spin dynamics and momentum distribution asymmetry of the equilibrium state as halhnarks of SO coupling in a Fermi gas. To clearly reveal the, property of SO coupling Fermi gas, we also study the momentmn-resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy which characterizes the energy momentum dispersion and spin composition of the quantum states. We observe the change of errmion surfaces in different helieity branches with different atomic density, which indicates that a Lifshitz transition of the Fermi surface topology change can be found by further cooling the system. At last, we study the momentum-resolved Raman spectroscopy of an ultracoht Fermi gas.     

Rotating Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice: Formulation of vortex configuration for the ground state

We consider a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice in the regime in which the system Hamiltonian can be mapped onto a Josephson junction array. In an approximate scheme where the couplings are assumed uniform, the ground state energy is formulated in terms of the vortex configuration. Application of the method for the ladder case presented and the results are compared with Monte-Carlo method.     

Stability of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates in one-dimensional tilted optical lattice potential

Using the direct perturbation technique,this paper obtains a general perturbed solution of the Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in one-dimensional tilted optical lattice potential. We also gave out two necessary and sufficient conditions for boundedness of the perturbed solution. Theoretical analytical results and the corresponding numerical results show that the perturbed solution of the Bose-Einstein condensate system is unbounded in general and indicate that the Bose-Einstein condensates are Lyapunov-unstable. However,when the conditions for boundedness of the perturbed solution are satisfied,then the Bose-Einstein condensates are Lyapunov-stable.     

Spin and spin-valley Hall effects in a honeycomb lattice with antiferromagnetism and spin-orbit couplings

We study linear response to a longitudinal electric field on an antiferromagnetic honeycomb lattice with intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit couplings (SOCs). It is found that the spin-valley Hall effect could emerge alone or coexist with the spin Hall effect. The spin and spin-valley Hall conductivities exhibit some peculiarities that depend on the distinct topological states of the graphene lattice. Furthermore, the spin and spin-valley Hall conductivities could be remarkably modulated by changing the Fermi level. Our findings suggest that the antiferromagnetic honeycomb lattice with SOCs is an excellent platform for potential applications of spintronics and valleytronics.     

Spin force and torque in non-relativistic Dirac oscillator on a sphere

The spin force operator on a non-relativistic Dirac oscillator (in the non-relativistic limit the Dirac oscillator is a spin one-half 3D harmonic oscillator with strong spin–orbit interaction) is derived using the Heisenberg equations of motion and is seen to be formally similar to the force by the electromagnetic field on a moving charged particle. When confined to a sphere of radius R, it is shown that the Hamiltonian of this non-relativistic oscillator can be expressed as a mere kinetic energy operator with an anomalous part. As a result, the power by the spin force and torque operators in this case are seen to vanish. The spin force operator on the sphere is calculated explicitly and its torque is shown to be equal to the rate of change of the kinetic orbital angular momentum operator, again with an anomalous part. This, along with the conservation of the total angular momentum, suggests that the spin force exerts a spin-dependent torque on the kinetic orbital angular momentum operator in order to conserve total angular momentum. The presence of an anomalous spin part in the kinetic orbital angular momentum operator gives rise to an oscillatory behavior similar to the Zitterbewegung. It is suggested that the underlying physics that gives rise to the spin force and the Zitterbewegung is one and the same in NRDO and in systems that manifest spin Hall effect.     

Controllable optical bistability of Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical cavity with a Kerr medium

We study the optical bistability for a Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms in a driven optical cavity with a Kerr medium. We find that both the threshold point of optical bistability transition and the width of optical bistability hysteresis can be controlled by appropriately adjusting the Kerr interaction between the photons. In particular, we show that the optical bistability will disappear when the Kerr interaction exceeds a critical value.     

Effects of three-body atomic interaction and optical lattice on solitons in quasi-one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate

We make use of a coordinate-free approach to implement Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion for stability analysis in order to study the effects of three-body atomic recombination and lattice potential on the matter-wave bright solitons formed in Bose-Einstein condensates. We analytically demonstrate that (i) the critical number of atoms in a stable BEC soliton is just half the number of atoms in a marginally stable Townes-like soliton and (ii) an additive optical lattice potential further reduces this number by a factor of √1 − bg ₃ with g ₃ the coupling constant of the lattice potential and b = 0.7301.      

Clock-transition spectrum of ^171yb atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice

An optical atomic clock with 171Yb atoms is devised and tested. By using a two-stage Doppler cooling technique, the 171Yb atoms are cooled down to a temperature of 6 ± 3 μK, which is close to the Doppler limit. Then, the cold 171Yb atoms are loaded into a one-dimensional optical lattice with a wavelength of 759 nm in the Lamb-Dicke regime. Furthermore, these cold 171Yb atoms are excited from the ground-state 1S0 to the excited-state 3P0 by a clock laser with a wavelength of 578 nm. Finally, the 1S0-3P0 clock-transition spectrum of these 171Yb atoms is obtained by measuring the dependence of the population of the ground-state 1S0 upon the clock-laser detuning.