Spin structures of spin-1 bosonic atoms trapped in an optical lattice with harmonic confinement

Journal Article · Wed Aug 15 04:00:00 EDT 2007 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.76.023606· OSTI ID:21016014

Yamashita, Makoto ^[1]; Jack, Michael W ^[2]

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1. NTT Basic Research Laboratories, NTT Corporation, 3-1 Morinosato-Wakamiya, Atsugi-shi, Kanagawa 243-0198 (Japan)
2. Scion, 49 Sala Street, Private Bag 3020, Rotorua (New Zealand)

We study the ground-state properties of spin-1 bosonic atoms trapped in a one-dimensional optical lattice with harmonic confinement. We have developed a highly efficient numerical method based on the Gutzwiller approximation to clarify the inhomogeneous magnetic phases induced by the harmonic confining potential. A quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator is examined for the respective cases with antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interactions. It is shown that the profile of local spins over the lattice sites changes as a function of the interaction strength forming the characteristic structures, which closely correlates with the average number of atoms at the sites. For antiferromagnetic cases, we find that there is a crossover from a superfluid polar condensate to Mott-insulator domains consisting of either a spin-singlet pair or a single spin at each site.

• OSTI ID: 21016014
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 76; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ANTIFERROMAGNETISM
APPROXIMATIONS
ATOMS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
BOSONS
CONFINEMENT
FERROMAGNETISM
FUNCTIONS
GROUND STATES
INTERACTIONS
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
OPTICAL MODELS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
POTENTIALS
SPIN
SUPERFLUIDITY
TRAPPING