Spin-Orbit Coupling in Multi-Component Ultracold Atomic Gases

by Ryan Barnett (Imperial College London)

Monday 29 Apr 2013, 12:00 → 13:00 Europe/Stockholm

122:026

Condensates of multicomponent bosons offer rich physical systems due their extra degrees of freedom originating, for instance, from internal spin states. In recent years, there has been considerable experimental advances in creating "synthetic" gauge fields and spin orbit couplings using optical dressing techniques in such multicomponent condensates. In the first part of this talk, I will consider the conceptually simple question of how bosons with Rashba spin-orbit coupling condense. In particular I will discuss how quantum fluctuations uniquely determine the ground state through the mechanism of order by disorder. I will then move on to introduce the notion of SU(3) spin-orbit coupling in ultracold atoms which arises for three-component bosons in the presence of synthetic gauge fields. I will describe how it is possible to realize a Chern insulator with a spatially homogeneous gauge field (which are experimentally easier to realize).