(a) The top panel shows the phase distribution of the ψ₁ component in the ²³Na condensate obtained by squeezing the condensate with ω_⊥/ω = 8, where ω_⊥ is the trapping frequency in the squeezing direction

Figure 7. (a) The top panel shows the phase distribution of the ψ₁ component in the ²³Na condensate obtained by squeezing the condensate with ω_⊥/ω = 8, where ω_⊥ is the trapping frequency in the squeezing direction. The SO coupling strength is κ = 2.0 and the total atom number is N = 5 × 10⁴. (b) The panels in the bottom are the corresponding spin texture. The spin texture on the right is the magnification of the squared area in the left panel. The unit of the space coordinates is a_{\perp }=\sqrt{\hbar /M\omega }.

Abstract

We analytically and numerically investigate the ground state of spin–orbit coupled spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates in an external parabolic potential. When the spin–orbit coupling is introduced, spatial displacement exists between the atom densities of components with different magnetic quantum numbers. The analytical calculations show this displacement reaches a maximum when the spin–orbit coupling strength is comparable with that of the trapping potential. As the spin–orbit coupling strength gets larger and larger, the spatial displacement decreases at a rate inversely proportional to the spin–orbit coupling strength. Correspondingly, periphery half-skyrmion textures arise; this displacement can be reflected by the non-uniform magnetic moment in the z direction. With the manipulation of the external trap, the local magnitude of the non-uniform magnetic moment can be increased evidently. This kind of increase of the local magnetic moment is also observed in the square vortex lattice phase of the condensate.