Atomic spin-orbit coupling synthesized with magnetic-field-gradient pulses

TL;DR

This paper proposes a versatile method to synthesize atomic spin-orbit coupling using magnetic-field-gradient pulses, enabling dynamic control of SOC types in ultracold atom experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a magnetic-field-gradient pulse scheme that works for the full hyperfine-spin manifold, unlike traditional adiabatic methods, allowing flexible SOC synthesis.

Findings

Scheme can produce Rashba and Dresselhaus SOC types

Applicable to most ultracold atom setups, especially with zero nuclear spin

Enables dynamic manipulation of SOC in experiments

Abstract

We discuss a general scheme for creating atomic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) such as the Rashba or Dresselhaus types using magnetic-field-gradient pulses. In contrast to conventional schemes based on adiabatic center-of-mass motion with atomic internal states restricted to a dressed-state subspace, our scheme works for the complete subspace of a hyperfine-spin manifold by utilizing the coupling between the atomic magnetic moment and external magnetic fields. A spatially dependent pulsed magnetic field acts as an internal-state-dependent impulse, thereby coupling the atomic internal spin with its orbital center-of-mass motion, as in the Einstein-de Haas effect. This effective coupling can be dynamically manipulated to synthesize SOC of any type (Rashba, Dresselhaus, or any linear combination thereof). Our scheme can be realized with most experimental setups of ultracold atoms and is especially suited for atoms with zero nuclear spins.