Trapped two-dimensional condensates with synthetic spin-orbit coupling

TL;DR

This paper investigates two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates with spin-orbit coupling, revealing diverse phases such as half-vortex solutions, stripe phases, and hexagonally-symmetric density patterns due to the interplay of interactions, confinement, and spin-orbit effects.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of phase behaviors in trapped 2D condensates with spin-orbit coupling, highlighting new vortex and lattice structures.

Findings

Identification of two half-vortex solutions at low interactions

Observation of stripe-phase formation at strong repulsive interactions

Discovery of hexagonally-symmetric density minima in intermediate regimes

Abstract

We study trapped 2D atomic Bose-Einstein condensates with spin-independent interactions in the presence of an isotropic spin-orbit coupling, showing that a rich physics results from the non-trivial interplay between spin-orbit coupling, confinement and inter-atomic interactions. For low interactions two types of half-vortex solutions with different winding occur, whereas strong-enough repulsive interactions result in a stripe-phase similar to that predicted for homogeneous condensates. Intermediate interaction regimes are characterized for large enough spin-orbit coupling by an hexagonally-symmetric phase with a triangular lattice of density minima similar to that observed in rapidly rotating condensates.