Atoms trapped by a spin-dependent optical lattice potential: realization of a ground state quantum rotor

Abstract

In a cold atom gas subject to a 2D spin-dependent optical lattice potential with hexagonal symmetry, trapped atoms undergo orbital motion around the potential minima. Such atoms are elementary quantum rotors. We develop the theory of such quantum rotors. Wave functions, energies, and degeneracies are determined for both bosonic and fermionic atoms, and magnetic dipole transitions between the states are elucidated. Quantum rotors in optical lattices with precisely one atom per unit cell can be used as high precision rotation sensors, accelerometers, and magnetometers.

5 pages plus 13 pages supplementary material

References in corpus (7)

• Many-Body Physics with Ultracold Gases
• Single-Spin Addressing in an Atomic Mott Insulator
• $p_x+i{p}_y$ superfluid from s-wave interactions of fermionic cold atoms
• Generalized Rashba spin-orbit coupling for cold atoms
• Spin-orbit coupling and Berry phase with ultracold atoms in 2D optical lattices
• Anisotropic polarizability of erbium atoms
• Quantum engineering of atomic phase-shifts in optical clocks

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Capturing non-exponential dynamics in the presence of two decay channels
• Multichannel decay law
• The fundamental localization phases in quasiperiodic systems: A unified framework and exact results
• Ising phase transitions and thermodynamics of correlated fermions in a two-dimensional spin-dependent lattice potential
• Atoms in a spin dependent optical potential: ground state topology and magnetization
• Fermionic atoms in a spin-dependent optical lattice potential: topological insulators with broken time-reversal symmetry
• Quantum Rotor Atoms in Light Beams with Orbital Angular Momentum: Highly Accurate Rotation Sensor