title: Spin-orbit coupled spinor Bose-Einstein condensates.
abstract: An effective spin-orbit coupling can be generated in a cold atom system by engineering atom-light interactions. In this Letter we study spin-1/2 and spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, and find that the condensate wave function will develop nontrivial structures. From numerical simulation we have identified two different phases. In one phase the ground state is a single plane wave, and often we find the system splits into domains and an array of vortices plays the role of a domain wall. In this phase, time-reversal symmetry is broken. In the other phase the condensate wave function is a standing wave, and it forms a spin stripe. The transition between them is driven by interactions between bosons. We also provide an analytical understanding of these results and determine the transition point between the two phases.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: Chunji
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Chao-Ming
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Jian
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhai