We have observed well-defined phase slips between quantized persistent current states around a toroidal atomic (23Na) Bose-Einstein condensate. These phase slips are induced by a weak link (a localized region of reduced superfluid density) rotated slowly around the ring. This …
Driving Phase Slips in a Superfluid Atom Circuit with a Rotating Weak Link Read more »
Fermions, as a major class of quantum particles, provide platforms for quantum information processing beyond the possibilities of spins or bosons, which have been studied more extensively. One particularly interesting model to study, in view of recent progress in manipulating …
We present a method for accurate determination of atomic transition matrix elements at the 10-3 level. Measurements of the ac Stark (light) shift around “magic-zero” wavelengths, where the light shift vanishes, provide precise constraints on the matrix elements. We make …
Precision Measurement of Transition Matrix Elements via Light Shift Cancellation Read more »
Motivated by the recent experimental success in realizing synthetic spin-orbit coupling in ultracold atomic systems, we consider N-component atoms coupled to a non-Abelian SU(N) gauge field. More specifically, we focus on the case, referred to here as “SU(3) spin-orbit-coupling,” where …
SU(3) Spin-Orbit Coupling in Systems of Ultracold Atoms Read more »
The coupling of the spin of electrons to their motional state lies at the heart of recently discovered topological phases of matter. Here we create and detect spin-orbit coupling in an atomic Fermi gas, a highly controllable form of quantum …
Spin-Injection Spectroscopy of a Spin-Orbit Coupled Fermi Gas Read more »
We have created a long-lived (≈40 s) persistent current in a toroidal Bose-Einstein condensate held in an all-optical trap. A repulsive optical barrier across one side of the torus creates a tunable weak link in the condensate circuit, which can affect …
Spin–orbit (SO) coupling—the interaction between a quantum particle’s spin and its momentum—is ubiquitous in physical systems. In condensed matter systems, SO coupling is crucial for the spin-Hall effect and topological insulators; it contributes to the electronic properties of materials such …