Raman Coupling of Zeeman Sublevels in an Alkali Bose Condensate

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to control the spinor order parameter of a 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate using Raman pulses, enabling precise state manipulation within Zeeman manifolds.

Contribution

It introduces a pulse-sequence protocol for targeted state changes in Zeeman sublevels of a BEC using Raman coupling, validated through experiments on 87Rb.

Findings

Successful implementation of the protocol in F=1 and F=2 manifolds

Identification of key interaction features for spatially-varying fields

Insights into light-induced potentials affecting control

Abstract

We investigate amplitude and phase control of the components of the spinor order parameter of a 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate. By modeling the interaction of the multilevel atomic system with a pair of Raman-detuned laser pulses, we show that it is possible to construct a pulse-sequence protocol for producing a desired state change within a single Zeeman manifold. We present several successful elementary tests of this protocol in both the F = 1 and F = 2 Zeeman manifolds of 87Rb using the D1 transitions. We describe specific features of the interaction which are important for multimode, spatially-varying field configurations, including the role of state-dependent, light-induced potentials.