Double and negative reflection of cold atoms in non-Abelian gauge potentials

Abstract

Atom reflection is studied in the presence of a non-Abelian vector potential proportional to a spin-1/2 operator. The potential is produced by a relatively simple laser configuration for atoms with a tripod level scheme. We show that the atomic motion is described by two different dispersion branches with positive or negative chirality. As a consequence of that, atom reflection shows unusual features, since an incident wave may split into two reflected ones at a barrier, an ordinary specular reflection, and an additional non-specular one. Remarkably, the latter wave can exhibit negative reflection and may become evanescent if the angle of incidence exceeds a critical value. These reflection properties are crucial for future designs in non-Abelian atom optics.

5 figures corrected references

References in corpus (4)

• Non-Abelian gauge potentials for ultra-cold atoms with degenerate dark states
• Observing Zitterbewegung in Ultracold Atoms
• Non-equilibrium spin dynamics in a trapped Fermi gas with effective spin-orbit interaction
• Effective magnetic fields in degenerate atomic gases induced by light beams with orbital angular momenta