Quantum Optics Laboratory

Abstract: 

Spin-orbit (SO) coupling plays a major role in many important phenomena in condensed matter physics. However, the SO coupling physics in high-spin systems, especially with superfluids, has not been well explored because of the spin half of electrons in solids. In this context, the recent experimental realization of spin-orbit coupling in spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) has opened a completely new avenue for exploring SO-coupled high-spin superfluids. Nevertheless, the experiment has only revealed the single-particle physics of the system. Here, we study the effects of interactions between atoms on the ground states and collective excitations of SO-coupled spin-1 BECs in the presence of a spin-tensor potential. We find that ferromagnetic interaction between atoms can induce a stripe phase exhibiting two modulating patterns. We characterize the phase transitions between different phases using the spin-tensor density as well as the collective dipole motion of the BEC. We show that there exists a new type of double maxon-roton structure in the Bogoliubov-excitation spectrum, attributing to the three band minima of the SO-coupled spin-1 BEC. Our work could motivate further theoretical and experimental study along this direction.