Geometrically induced complex tunnelings for ultracold atoms carrying orbital angular momentum

TL;DR

This paper explores how the geometry of coupled ring potentials can induce complex tunneling amplitudes, enabling control over orbital angular momentum states of ultracold atoms through quantum interference.

Contribution

It introduces a method to geometrically engineer complex tunneling amplitudes in ultracold atom systems with ring potentials, facilitating manipulation of angular momentum states.

Findings

Complex tunneling amplitudes depend on system symmetry.

Triangular ring configuration enables creation of spatial dark states.

Quantum interference can be used to control orbital angular momentum transport.

Abstract

We investigate the dynamics of angular momentum states for a single ultracold atom trapped in two dimensional systems of sided coupled ring potentials. The symmetries of the system show that tunneling amplitudes between different ring states with variation of the winding number are complex. In particular, we demonstrate that in a triangular ring configuration the complex nature of the cross-couplings can be used to geometrically engineer spatial dark states to manipulate the transport of orbital angular momentum states via quantum interference.