Lattice-induced rapid formation of spin singlets in spin-1 spinor condensates

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a cubic optical lattice enables rapid formation of spin singlets in spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates, making their experimental study more feasible.

Contribution

It introduces a method combining optical lattices and microwave dressing to produce spin singlets efficiently in ultracold atoms, overcoming previous constraints.

Findings

80% of atoms form spin singlets after phase transition

Spin singlets form rapidly in lattice-confined condensates

A phenomenological model accurately describes the observations

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate that combining a cubic optical lattice with a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate substantially relaxes three strict constraints and brings spin singlets of ultracold spin-1 atoms into experimentally accessible regions. About 80 percent of atoms in the lattice-confined spin-1 spinor condensate are found to form spin singlets, immediately after the atoms cross first-order superfluid to Mott-insulator phase transitions in a microwave dressing field. A phenomenological model is also introduced to well describe our observations without adjustable parameters.