arXiv subjects

Chunlei Qu

Publications and source records attributed to Chunlei Qu.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Stueckelberg interferometry using periodically driven spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

We study the single-particle dispersion of a spin-orbit coupled (SOC) Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) under the periodical modulation of the Raman coupling. This modulation introduces a further coupling of the SOC dressed eigenlevels, thus creating a second generation of modulation-dressed eigenlevels. Theoretical calculations show that these modulation-dressed eigenlevels feature a pair of avoided crossings and a richer spin-momentum locking, which we observe using BEC transport measurements. Furthermore, we use the pair of avoided crossings to engineer a tunable Stueckelberg interferometer that gives interference fringes in the spin polarization of BECs.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2017

Magnetic solitons in Rabi-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

We study magnetic solitons, solitary waves of spin polarization (i.e., magnetization), in binary Bose-Einstein condensates in the presence of Rabi coupling. We show that the system exhibits two types of magnetic solitons, called $2π$ and $0π$ solitons, characterized by a different behavior of the relative phase between the two spin components. $2π$ solitons exhibit a $2π$ jump of the relative phase, independent of their velocity, the static domain wall explored by Son and Stephanov being an example of such $2π$ solitons with vanishing velocity and magnetization. $0π$ solitons instead do not exhibit any asymptotic jump in the relative phase. Systematic results are provided for both types of solitons in uniform matter. Numerical calculations in the presence of a one-dimensional harmonic trap reveal that a $2π$ soliton evolves in time into a $0π$ soliton, and vice versa, oscillating around the center of the trap. Results for the effective mass, the Landau critical velocity, and the role of the transverse confinement are also discussed.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Expansion of harmonically trapped interacting particles and time dependence of the contact

We study the expansion of an interacting atomic system at zero temperature, following its release from an isotropic three-dimensional harmonic trap and calculate the time dependence of its density and momentum distribution, with special focus on the behavior of the contact parameter. We consider different quantum systems, including the unitary Fermi gas of infinite scattering length, the weakly interacting Bose gas, and two interacting particles with highly asymmetric mass imbalance. In all cases analytic results can be obtained, which show that the initial value of the contact, fixing the $1/k^4$ tail of the momentum distribution, disappears for large expansion times. Our results raise the problem of understanding the recent experiment of Chang \textit{et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{117}, 235303 (2016)] carried out on a weakly interacting Bose gas of metastable $^4$He atoms, where a $1/r^4$ tail in the density distribution was observed after a large expansion time, implying the existence of the $1/k^4$ tail in the asymptotic momentum distribution.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Spin-Dipole Oscillation and Polarizability of a Binary Bose-Einstein Condensate near the Miscible-Immiscible Phase Transition

We report on the measurement of the spin-dipole (SD) polarizability and of the frequency of the SD oscillation of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate of sodium atoms occupying the $|3^2S_{1/2}, F=1, m_F=\pm1\rangle$ hyperfine states. This binary spin-mixture presents the important properties of being, at the same time, fully miscible and rid of the limit set by buoyancy. It is also characterized by a huge enhancement of the SD polarizability and by the consequent softening of the frequency of the SD oscillation, due to the vicinity to the transition to the immiscible phase. The experimental data are successfully compared with the predictions of theory.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Optical-lattice-assisted magnetic phase transition in a spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate

We investigate the effect of a periodic potential generated by a one-dimensional optical lattice on the magnetic properties of an $S=1/2$ spin-orbit-coupled Bose gas. By increasing the lattice strength one can achieve a magnetic phase transition between a polarized and an unpolarized Bloch wave phase, characterized by a significant enhancement of the contrast of the density fringes. If the wave vector of the periodic potential is chosen close to the roton momentum, the transition could take place at very small lattice intensities, revealing the strong enhancement of the response of the system to a weak density perturbation. By solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in the presence of a three-dimensional trapping potential, we shed light on the possibility of observing the magnetic phase transition in currently available experimental conditions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Magnetic Solitons in a Binary Bose-Einstein Condensate

We study solitary waves of polarization (magnetic solitons) in a two-component Bose gas with slightly unequal repulsive intra- and interspin interactions. In experimentally relevant conditions we obtain an analytical solution which reveals that the width and the velocity of magnetic solitons are explicitly related to the spin healing length and the spin sound velocity of the Bose mixture, respectively. We calculate the profiles, the energy and the effective mass of the solitons in the absence of external fields and investigate their oscillation in a harmonic trap where the oscillation period is calculated as a function of the oscillation amplitude. The stability of magnetic solitons in two dimensions and the conditions for their experimental observation are also briefly discussed.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Fulde-Ferrell Superfluids without Spin Imbalance in Driven Optical Lattices

Spin-imbalanced ultracold Fermi gases have been widely studied recently as a platform for exploring the long-sought Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov superfluid phases, but so far conclusive evidence has not been found. Here we propose to realize an Fulde-Ferrell (FF) superfluid without spin imbalance in a three-dimensional fermionic cold atom optical lattice, where $s$- and $p$-orbital bands of the lattice are coupled by another weak moving optical lattice. Such coupling leads to a spin-independent asymmetric Fermi surface, which, together with the $s$-wave scattering interaction between two spins, yields an FF type of superfluid pairing. Unlike traditional schemes, our proposal does not rely on the spin imbalance (or an equivalent Zeeman field) to induce the Fermi surface mismatch and provides a completely new route for realizing FF superfluids.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Interacting spin-orbit-coupled spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates

The recent experimental realization of spin-orbit (SO) coupling for spin-1 ultracold atoms opens an interesting avenue for exploring SO-coupling-related physics in large-spin systems, which is generally unattainable in electronic materials. In this paper, we study the effects of interactions between atoms on the ground states and collective excitations of SO-coupled spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) in the presence of a spin-tensor potential. We find that ferromagnetic interaction between atoms can induce a stripe phase exhibiting in-phase or out-of-phase modulating patterns between spin-tensor and zero-spin-component density waves. We characterize the phase transitions between different phases using the spin-tensor density as well as the collective dipole motion of the BEC. We show that there exists a double maxon-roton structure in the Bogoliubov-excitation spectrum, attributed to the three band minima of the SO-coupled spin-1 BEC.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Dynamical spin-density waves in a spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate

Synthetic spin-orbit (SO) coupling, an important ingredient for quantum simulation of many exotic condensed matter physics, has recently attracted considerable attention. The static and dynamic properties of a SO coupled Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) have been extensively studied in both theory and experiment. Here we numerically investigate the generation and propagation of a \textit{dynamical} spin-density wave (SDW) in a SO coupled BEC using a fast moving Gaussian-shaped barrier. We find that the SDW wavelength is sensitive to the barrier's velocity while varies slightly with the barrier's peak potential or width. We qualitatively explain the generation of SDW by considering a rectangular barrier in a one dimensional system. Our results may motivate future experimental and theoretical investigations of rich dynamics in the SO coupled BEC induced by a moving barrier.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Spin - orbital-angular-momentum coupling in Bose-Einstein condensates

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) plays a crucial role in many branches of physics. In this context, the recent experimental realization of the coupling between spin and linear momentum of ultracold atoms opens a completely new avenue for exploring new spin-related superfluid physics. Here we propose that another important and fundamental SOC, the coupling between spin and orbital angular momentum (SOAM), can be implemented for ultracold atoms using higher-order Laguerre-Gaussian laser beams to induce Raman coupling between two hyperfine spin states of atoms. We study the ground-state phase diagrams of SOAM-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates on a ring trap and explore their applications in gravitational force detection. Our results may provide the basis for further investigation of intriguing superfluid physics induced by SOAM coupling, such as collective excitations.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Spin-momentum coupled Bose-Einstein condensates with lattice band pseudospins

The quantum emulation of spin-momentum coupling (SMC), a crucial ingredient for the emergence of topological phases, is currently drawing considerable interest. In previous quantum gas experiments, typically two atomic hyperfine states were chosen as pseudospins. Here, we report the observation of a new kind of SMC achieved by loading a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) into periodically driven optical lattices. The s- and p-bands of a static lattice, which act as pseudospins, are coupled through an additional moving lattice which induces a momentum dependent coupling between the two pseudospins, resulting in s-p hybrid Floquet-Bloch bands. We investigate the band structures by measuring the quasimomentum of the BEC for different velocities and strengths of the moving lattice and compare our measurements to theoretical predictions. The realization of SMC with lattice bands as pseudospins paves the way for engineering novel quantum matter using hybrid orbital bands.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Quantum phases of Bose-Einstein condensates with synthetic spin - orbital-angular-momentum coupling

The experimental realization of emergent spin-orbit coupling through laser-induced Raman transitions in ultracold atoms paves the way for exploring novel superfluid physics and simulating exotic many-body phenomena. A recent proposal with the use of Laguerre-Gaussian lasers enables another fundamental type of coupling between spin and orbital angular momentum (SOAM) in ultracold atoms. We hereby study quantum phases of a realistic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) with this synthetic SOAM coupling in a disk-shaped geometry, respecting radial inhomogeneity of the Raman coupling. We find that the experimental system naturally resides in a strongly interacting regime in which the phase diagram significantly deviates from the single-particle picture. The interplay between SOAM coupling and interaction leads to rich structures in spin-resolved position and momentum distributions, including a stripe phase and various types of immiscible states. Our results would provide a guide for an experimental investigation of SOAM-coupled BECs.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

1D topological chains with Majorana fermions in 2D non-topological optical lattices

The recent experimental realization of 1D equal Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling (ERD-SOC) for cold atoms provide a disorder-free platform for the implementation and observation of Majorana fermions (MFs), similar to the well studied solid state nanowire/superconductor heterostructures. However, the corresponding 1D chains of cold atoms possess strong quantum fluctuation, which may destroy the superfluids and MFs. In this Letter, we show that such 1D topological chains with MFs may be on demand generated in a 2D non-topological optical lattice with 1D ERD-SOC by modifying local potentials on target locations using experimentally already implemented atomic gas microscopes or patterned (e.g., double or triple well) optical lattices. All ingredients in our scheme have been experimentally realized and the combination of them may pave the way for the experimental observation of MFs in a clean system.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Floquet FFLO superfluids and Majorana fermions in a shaken fermionic optical lattice

Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superfluids, Cooper pairings with finite momentum, and Majorana fermions (MFs), quasiparticles with non-Abelian exchange statistics, are two topics under intensive investigation in the past several decades, but unambiguous experimental evidences for them have not been found yet in any physical system. Here we show that the recent experimentally realized cold atom shaken optical lattice provides a new pathway to realize FFLO superfluids and MFs. By tuning shaken lattice parameters (shaking frequency and amplitude), various coupling between the s- and p-orbitals of the lattice (denoted as the pseudo-spins) can be generated. We show that the combination of the inverted s- and p-band dispersions, the engineered pseudo-spin coupling, and the attractive on-site atom interaction, naturally allows the observation of FFLO superfluids as well as MFs in different parameter regions. While without interaction the system is a topological insulator (TI) with edge states, the MFs in the superfluid may be found to be in the conduction or valence band, distinguished from previous TI-based schemes that utilize edge states inside the band gap.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Dicke-type phase transition in a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate

Spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) provide a powerful tool to investigate interesting gauge-field related phenomena. We study the ground state properties of such a system and show that it can be mapped to the well-known Dicke model in quantum optics, which describes the interactions between an ensemble of atoms and an optical field. A central prediction of the Dicke model is a quantum phase transition between a superradiant phase and a normal phase. Here we detect this transition in a spin-orbit coupled BEC by measuring various physical quantities across the phase transition. These quantities include the spin polarization, the relative occupation of the nearly degenerate single particle states, the quantity analogous to the photon field occupation, and the period of a collective oscillation (quadrupole mode). The applicability of the Dicke model to spin-orbit coupled BECs may lead to interesting applications in quantum optics and quantum information science.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Competing superfluid orders in spin-orbit coupled fermionic cold atom optical lattices

The Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase, a superconducting state with non-zero total momentum Cooper pairs in a large magnetic field, was first predicted about 50 years ago, and since then became an important concept in many branches of physics. Despite intensive search in various materials, unambiguous experimental evidence for the FFLO phase is still lacking in experiments. In this paper, we show that both FF (uniform order parameter with plane-wave phase) and LO phase (spatially varying order parameter amplitude) can be observed using fermionic cold atoms in spin-orbit coupled optical lattices. The increasing spin-orbit coupling enhances the FF phase over the LO phase. The coexistence of superfluid and magnetic orders is also found in the normal BCS phase. The pairing mechanism for different phases is understood by visualizing superfluid pairing densities in different spin-orbit bands. The possibility of observing similar physics using spin-orbit coupled superconducting ultra-thin films is also discussed.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Majorana fermions in quasi-1D and higher dimensional ultracold fermionic optical lattices

We show that Majorana fermions (MFs) exist in two- and three-dimensional (2D,3D) fermionic optical lattices with strictly 1D spin-orbit coupling (SOC) which has already been realized in ex- periments. For a quasi-1D topological BCS superfluid, there are multiple MFs at each end which are topologically protected by a chiral symmetry. In the generalization to higher dimensions, the multiple MFs form a zero energy flat band. An additional experimentally tunable in-plane Zeeman field drives the system to a topological Fulde-Ferrell (FF) superfluid phase. We find that even though the multiple MFs are robust against the in-plane Zeeman field if the order parameters at the different chains are enforced to be identical, they are destroyed in the self-consistently obtained FF phase where the order parameters are inhomogeneous on the boundaries. Our results are useful to guide the experimentalists on searching for MFs in the context of ultracold fermionic atoms.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Observation of Zitterbewegung in a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate

Spin-orbit coupled ultra-cold atoms provide an intriguing new avenue for the study of rich spin dynamics in superfluids. In this Letter, we observe Zitterbewegung, the simultaneous velocity (thus position) and spin oscillations, of neutral atoms between two spin-orbit coupled bands in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) through sudden quantum quenches of the Hamiltonian. The observed Zitterbewegung oscillations are perfect on a short time scale but gradually damp out on a long time scale, followed by sudden and strong heating of the BEC. As an application, we also demonstrate how Zitterbewegung oscillations can be exploited to populate the upper spin-orbit band, and observe a subsequent dipole motion. Our experimental results are corroborated by a theoretical and numerical analysis and showcase the great flexibility that ultra-cold atoms provide for investigating rich spin dynamics in superfluids.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗