Dicke-type phase transition in a spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate

Chris Hamner, Chunlei Qu, Yongping Zhang, Jiajia Chang, Ming Gong, Chuanwei Zhang, Peter Engels

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

139 Scopus citations

Abstract

Spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) provide a powerful tool to investigate interesting gauge field-related phenomena. Here we study the ground state properties of such a system and show that it can be mapped to the well-known Dicke model in quantum optics, which describes the interactions between an ensemble of atoms and an optical field. A central prediction of the Dicke model is a quantum phase transition between a superradiant phase and a normal phase. We detect this transition in a spin-orbit-coupled BEC by measuring various physical quantities across the phase transition. These quantities include the spin polarization, the relative occupation of the nearly degenerate single-particle states, the quantity analogous to the photon field occupation and the period of a collective oscillation (quadrupole mode). The applicability of the Dicke model to spin-orbit-coupled BECs may lead to interesting applications in quantum optics and quantum information science.

Original languageEnglish
Article number4023
JournalNature Communications
Volume5
DOIs
StatePublished - 4 Jun 2014

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