St\"uckelberg interferometry using spin-orbit-coupled cold atoms in an optical lattice

TL;DR

This paper investigates St"uckelberg interferometry in spin-orbit-coupled cold atoms within an optical lattice, revealing how gauge-dependent phases influence interference patterns and enabling measurement of synthetic gauge fields.

Contribution

It introduces a method to analyze St"uckelberg interference in a two-band system with spin-orbit coupling, highlighting gauge field effects on phase accumulation and spin dynamics.

Findings

Observation of gauge-dependent phase effects on interference patterns

Demonstration of chiral Bloch oscillations

Identification of spin-momentum locking phenomena

Abstract

Time evolution of spin-orbit-coupled cold atoms in an optical lattice is studied, with a two-band energy spectrum having two avoided crossings. A force is applied such that the atoms experience two consecutive Landau-Zener tunnelings while transversing the avoided crossings. St\"uckelberg interference arises from the phase accumulated during the adiabatic evolution between the two tunnelings. This phase is gauge field-dependent and thus provides new opportunities to measure the synthetic gauge field, which is verified via calculation of spin transition probabilities after a double passage process. Time-dependent and time-averaged spin probabilities are derived, in which resonances are found. We also demonstrate chiral Bloch oscillation and rich spin-momentum locking behavior in this system.