2014/09/20 by Sh. Mardonov, M. Palmero, M. Modugno +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.quant-gas #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1209/0295-5075/106/60004
published as Europhysics Letters 106, 60004 (2014) · published version
arxiv created 2014/09/20 · arxiv updated 2014/09/23
Interference of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, observed in free expansion experiments, is a basic characteristic of their quantum nature. The ability to produce synthetic spin-orbit coupling in Bose-Einstein condensates has recently opened a new research field. Here we theoretically describe interference of two noninteracting spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates in an external synthetic magnetic field. We demonstrate that the spin-orbit and the Zeeman couplings strongly influence the interference pattern determined by the angle between the spins of the condensates, as can be seen in time-of-flight experiments. We show that a quantum backflow, being a subtle feature of the interference, is, nevertheless, robust against the spin-orbit coupling and applied synthetic magnetic field.