Spin–orbit coupling in quantum gases

By V. Galitski, Ian B. Spielman. Nature, 2013

764 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Spin–orbit coupling links a particle’s velocity to its quantum-mechanical spin, and is essential in numerous condensed matter phenomena, including topological insulators and Majorana fermions. In solid-state materials, spin–orbit coupling originates from the movement of electrons in a crystal’s intrinsic electric field, which is uniquely prescribed in any given material. In contrast, for ultracold atomic systems, the engineered ‘material parameters’ are tunable: a variety of synthetic spin–orbit couplings can be engineered on demand using laser fields. Here we outline the current experimental and theoretical status of spin–orbit coupling in ultracold atomic systems, discussing unique features that enable physics impossible in any other known setting.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3f2d791b3d849947a977016444cf51e4f909174a

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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Citations in the corpus

Topological quantum matter with ultracold gases in optical lattices (2016, background): “With the recent advances in the experimental realization of synthetic spin-orbit coupling in ultracold quantum gases [51, 91, 92], all the individual ingredients for synthetic topological superfluids in fermionic quantum gases are in place and several concrete proposals, both for the 2D p+ ip superf”
Topological bands for ultracold atoms (2018, neutral): “In particular the term proportional to tSO can be simplified in the limit of low momenta into ∝ kyσ̂x + kxσ̂y, corresponding to the usual form of the Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling for a bulk material (Galitski and Spielman, 2013).”
Spin-Orbit Coupling for Photons and Polaritons in Microstructures (2014, background): “Novel systems, like ultracold atomic gases under suitably designed optical and/or magnetic field configurations [6], and photons in properly designed structures [7], allow for a great flexibility and control of the system Hamiltonian.”
Nonlinear waves in PT -symmetric systems (2016, background): “Such a system can emulate the phenomenon of spin-orbit (SO) coupling in condensedmatter physics (Galitski and Spielman, 2013; Stanescu, Anderson, and Galitski, 2008) and gives rise to a SO-coupled BEC, which was produced experimentally by Lin, Jiménez-Garćıa, and Spielman (2011).”
(INVITED) Vortex solitons: Old results and new perspectives (2019, neutral): “[232] V.”