2003/10/31 by Iacopo Carusotto, Erich J. Mueller · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #cond-mat
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0953-4075/37/7/058
published as Journal of Physics B 37 (2004) S115 - S125 · second revised version
arxiv created 2004/01/14 · openalex publication_date 2004/03/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We explore the dielectric properties of spinor condensates. Gases with vector (nematic) order, such as spin-1 condensates with ferromagnetic (antiferromagnetic) interactions, display optical activity (birefringence). This optical activity/birefringence is respectively seen for light detuned from resonance by a frequency which is not too large compared with the fine/hyperfine structure. Careful tuning of the light frequency can isolate either of these two effects. These features can be used to image spin textures in clouds of spin-1 bosons, and to discern states showing different types of spin order.