Spin-orbit-coupled dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to realize spin-orbit coupling in spin-3 chromium Bose-Einstein condensates, revealing novel ground state phases including stripe and vortex structures due to dipolar interactions.

Contribution

It introduces an experimental scheme for spin-orbit coupling in chromium BECs and analyzes resulting ground state phases with dipolar interactions.

Findings

Stripe structures induced by spin-orbit coupling.

Vortex phase with spontaneous spin vortex formation.

Dipolar interactions significantly influence ground state configurations.

Abstract

We propose an experimental scheme to create spin-orbit coupling in spin-3 Cr atoms using Raman processes. Employing linear Zeeman effect and optical Stark shift, two spin states within the ground electronic manifold are selected, which results in a pseudo-spin-1/2 model. We further study the ground state structures of a spin-orbit-coupled Cr condensate. We show that, in addition to the stripe structures induced by the spin-orbit coupling, the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction gives rise to the vortex phase, in which spontaneous spin vortex is formed.