Magnetization Plateaus for Spin-One Bosons in Optical Lattices: Stern-Gerlach Experiments with Strongly Correlated Atoms

2004/01/31 by Adilet Imambekov, Mikhail D. Lukin, Mikhail Lukin +1 · 46 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Boson #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Magnetic field #Magnetization #Optical lattice #Phase (matter) #Phase diagram #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Spin (aerodynamics) #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #Superfluidity #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.str-el #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.93.120405

published in Physical Review Letters 93(12), 120405 (American Physical Society) · 4 pages 5 figures

arxiv created 2004/09/14 · openalex publication_date 2004/09/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We consider insulating states of spin-one bosons in optical lattices in the presence of a weak magnetic field. For the states with more than one atom per lattice site we find a series of quantum phase transitions between states with fixed magnetization and a canted nematic phase. In the presence of a global confining potential, this unusual phase diagram leads to several novel phenomena, including the formation of magnetization plateaus. We discuss how these effects can be observed using spatially resolved spin polarization measurements.

Citations

• Exact Eigenstates and Magnetic Response of Spin-1 and Spin-2 Bose-Einstein Condensates
• Coherent Transport of Neutral Atoms in Spin-Dependent Optical Lattice Potentials
• Insulator-superfluid transition of spin-1 bosons in an optical lattice in magnetic field
• Optical Confinement of a Bose-Einstein Condensate
• Quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator in a gas of ultracold atoms
• Spinor Bosonic Atoms in Optical Lattices: Symmetry Breaking and Fractionalization
• Spin-exchange interactions of spin-one bosons in optical lattices: Singlet, nematic, and dimerized phases
• Quantum Spin Nematic States in Bose–Einstein Condensates
• Microscopic wave functions of spin-singlet and nematic Mott states of spin-one bosons in high-dimensional bipartite lattices

Cited by

• Isentropes of spin-1 bosons in an optical lattice
• Phase Diagram of Spin-1 Bosons on One-Dimensional Lattices