Generalized Rashba spin-orbit coupling for cold atoms

Abstract

We study the possibility to generate a new type of spin-orbit coupling for the center of mass motion of cold atoms, using laser beams that resonantly couple N atomic internal ground states to an extra state. After a general analysis of the scheme, we concentrate on the tetrapod setup (N=4) where the atomic state can be described by a three-component spinor, evolving under the action of a Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling for a spin 1 particle. We illustrate a consequence of this coupling by studying the negative refraction of atoms at a potential step, and show that the amplitude of the refracted beam is significantly increased in comparison to the known case of spin 1/2 Rashba coupling. Finally we explore a possible implementation of this tetrapod setup, using stimulated Raman couplings between Zeeman sublevels of the ground state of alkali atoms.

8 figures; corrected typos and figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Spin-Orbit Coupled Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensates
• Topological Phases for Fermionic Cold Atoms on the Lieb Lattice
• Dirac Equation For Cold Atoms In Artificial Curved Spacetimes
• Emergent patterns in a spin-orbit coupled spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensate
• Non-abelian anyons from degenerate Landau levels of ultracold atoms in artificial gauge potentials
• Topological superfluids on a lattice with non-Abelian gauge fields