Ruquan Wang

Tunable atomic spin-orbit coupling synthesized with a modulating gradient magnetic field.

We report the observation of synthesized spin-orbit coupling (SOC) for ultracold spin-1 87Rb atoms. Different from earlier experiments where a one dimensional (1D) atomic SOC of pseudo-spin-1/2 is synthesized with Raman laser fields, the scheme we demonstrate employs a gradient magnetic field (GMF) and ground-state atoms, thus is immune to atomic spontaneous emission. The strength of SOC we realize can be tuned by changing the modulation amplitude of the GMF, and the effect of the SOC is confirmed through the studies of: 1) the collective dipole oscillation of an atomic condensate in a harmonic trap after the synthesized SOC is abruptly turned on; and 2) the minimum energy state at a finite adiabatically adjusted momentum when SOC strength is slowly ramped up. The condensate coherence is found to remain very good after driven by modulating GMFs. Our scheme presents an alternative means for studying interacting many-body systems with synthesized SOC.

Ultra-High Efficiency Magnetic Transport of 87Rb Atoms in a Single Chamber Bose?Einstein Condensation Apparatus

We report the ultra-high efficiency transport of cold 87Rb atoms using a moving magnetic quadrupole potential generated by three overlapping pairs of fixed coils. The transfer efficiency is better than 97%, which is the highest ever reported to our knowledge. The temperature increase due to heating is less than 10 when the initial cloud temperature is 110 μK. Our setup is similar to the magnetic transferring belt design [Phys. Rev. A 63 (2001) 031401(R)], although it is simpler because the push coil is not required. We use it to transport atoms away from a magneto-optical trap to very close to the wall of the glass cell, facilitating future experiments employing three-dimensional optical lattices, high resolution in-situ imaging, and magnetic Feshbach resonances.

Spin dynamics of the potassium magnetometer in spin-exchange relaxation free regime*

The laser-pumped potassium spin-exchange relaxation free (SERF) magnetometer is the most sensitive detector of magnetic field and has many important applications. We present the experimental results of our potassium SERF magnetometer. A pump–probe approach is used to identify the unique spin dynamics of the atomic ensemble in the SERF regime. A single channel sensitivity of 8 fTHz−1/2 is achieved with our SERF magnetometer.

Generating an effective magnetic lattice for ultracold atoms

We present a general scheme for synthesizing a spatially periodic magnetic field, or a magnetic lattice (ML), for ultracold atoms using pulsed gradient magnetic field (GMF). Our scheme is immune to atomic spontaneous emission often encountered in optical lattices, and has the additional benefits of easy tunability for both the lattice period and depth. Technical requirements for the experimental protocol implementing our scheme is estimated and shown to be readily available in today’s cold atom laboratories. The effective Hamiltonian for atoms interacting with the synthesized two-dimensional ML has not been studied in quantum condensed matter physics previously. Its band structure shows interesting features reminiscent of lattice models in p-orbit physics. Realization of our proposal will significantly expand the repertoire for quantum simulation with ultracold atoms.

Impact of photoassisted collisions on superradiant light scattering with Bose-Einstein condensates

We present experimental evidence supporting the postulation that the secondary effects of light-assisted collisions are the main reason that the superradiant light scattering efficiency in condensates is asymmetric with respect to the sign of the pump-laser detuning. Contrary to recent experimental study, however, we observe severe and comparable heating with all three pump-laser polarizations. We also perform two-color, double-pulse measurements to directly study the degradation of condensate coherence and the resulting impact on the superradiant scattering efficiency.

Improved atom number with a dual color magneto—optical trap

We demonstrate a novel dual color magneto—optical trap (MOT), which uses two sets of overlapping laser beams to cool and trap 87Rb atoms. The volume of cold cloud in the dual color MOT is strongly dependent on the frequency difference of the laser beams and can be significantly larger than that in the normal MOT with single frequency MOT beams. Our experiment shows that the dual color MOT has the same loading rate as the normal MOT, but much longer loading time, leading to threefold increase in the number of trapped atoms. This indicates that the larger number is caused by reduced light induced loss. The dual color MOT is very useful in experiments where both high vacuum level and large atom number are required, such as single chamber quantum memory and Bose—Einstein condensation (BEC) experiments. Compared to the popular dark spontaneous-force optical trap (dark SPOT) technique, our approach is technically simpler and more suitable to low power laser systems.

Pumping vortex into a Bose–Einstein condensate of heteronuclear molecules

Heteronuclear molecules have attracted wide attention due to their permanent electric dipole moments. Analogous to atoms with magnetic dipoles, the existence of nonzero electric dipoles significantly enhances the possibilities and mechanisms for the control and design of quantum degenerate molecule systems with electric (E) fields. This work proposes a vortex creation mechanism inside a condensate of heteronuclear molecules through the adiabatic flipping of the axial bias of an analogous E-field Ioffe–Pritchard trap (IPT), extending the original protocol of Isoshima et al (2000 Phys. Rev. A 61 063610) for an atomic spinor condensate inside a magnetic (B)-field IPT. We provide both analytic proof and numerical simulations to illustrate the high fidelity operation of this vortex pump protocol. We hope our work provides stimulating experimental possibilities for active investigations in quantum degenerate molecule systems.

Harmonic trap resonance enhanced synthetic atomic spin-orbit coupling

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) plays an essential role in many exotic and interesting phenomena in condensed matter physics. In neutral-atom-based quantum simulations, synthetic SOC constitutes a key enabling element. The strength of SOC realized so far is limited by various reasons or constraints. This work reports tunable SOC synthesized with a gradient magnetic field (GMF) for atoms in a harmonic trap. Nearly ten-fold enhancement is observed when the GMF is modulated near the harmonic-trap resonance in comparison with the free-space situation. A theory is developed that well explains the experimental results. Our work offers a clear physical insight into and analytical understanding of how to tune the strength of atomic SOC synthesized with GMF using harmonic trap resonance.

Atomic spin orbit coupling synthesized with gradient magnetic fields

Spin orbit coupling (SOC) for neutral atoms can be synthesized with pulsed or time modulating gradient magnetic field (GMF). This is confirmed through the studies of collective dipole oscillations for a spin-1 atomic condensate in a harmonic trap after abruptly turning on SOC and adiabatically adjusted equilibrium states when SOC strength is slowly ramped up. Further measurements reveal that SOC can be enhanced when the GMF modulation frequency approaches harmonic trap frequency. Additionally, we discuss how the technique of pulsed GMF can be used to synthesize space-period magnetic fields, or magnetic lattices.

Studies of atomic spin-orbit coupling synthesized with gradient magnetic fields

Atomic spin orbit coupling (SOC) can be synthesized with modulating gradient magnetic field (GMF). This is confirmed through studying collective dipole oscillations for a spin-1 atomic condensate in a harmonic trap after abruptly turning on SOC, and studying adiabatically adjusted equilibrium states when SOC strength is slowly ramped up. Further measurements reveal that SOC can be enhanced when the GMF modulation frequency approaches trapping frequency.