Optically induced conical intersections in traps for ultracold atoms and molecules

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how conical intersections can be optically induced in traps for ultracold atoms and molecules, enabling novel quantum states and persistent flow phenomena through combined optical and magnetic field manipulation.

Contribution

It introduces a method to create conical intersections in laboratory coordinates using optical and magnetic fields in ultracold atom and molecule traps, a novel approach in quantum control.

Findings

Ring traps support states with half-integer rotational quantization

Conical intersections occur at optical field nodes

Persistent flow states are achievable in the trap

Abstract

We show that conical intersections can be created in laboratory coordinates by dressing a parabolic trap for ultracold atoms or molecules with a combination of optical and static magnetic fields. The resulting ring trap can support single-particle states with half-integer rotational quantization and many-particle states with persistent flow. Two well-separated atomic or molecular states are brought into near-resonance by an optical field and tuned across each other with an inhomogeneous magnetic field. Conical intersections occur at the nodes in the optical field.