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Magnetically generated spin-orbit coupling for ultracold atoms

Published

Author(s)

Brandon M. Anderson, Ian B. Spielman, Gediminas Juzeliunas

Abstract

We present a new technique for producing two and three dimensional Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling for ultra cold atoms without involving light. The method relies on a sequence of pulsed inhomogeneous magnetic fields imprinting suitable phase gradients on the atoms. For sufficiently short pulse durations, the time-averaged Hamiltonian well approximates the Rashba Hamiltonian. Higher order corrections to the energy spectrum are calculated exactly for spin-1/2 and pertur- batively for higher spins. The pulse sequence does not modify the form of rotationally symmetric atom-atom interactions. Finally, we present a straightforward implementation of this pulse sequence on an atom-chip.
Citation
Physical Review Letters
Volume
111

Keywords

Artificial Gauge Fields, Ultracold atoms, Spin orbit coupling

Citation

Anderson, B. , Spielman, I. and Juzeliunas, G. (2013), Magnetically generated spin-orbit coupling for ultracold atoms, Physical Review Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.125301 (Accessed October 8, 2025)

Issues

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Created September 18, 2013, Updated November 10, 2018
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