Localization-delocalization transition in spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

We address the impact of the spin-orbit (SO) coupling on the localization-delocalization-Transition (LDT) in a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate in a bichromatic potential. We find that SO coupling significantly alters the threshold depth of the one of sublattices above which the lowest eigenstates transform from delocalizated into localized. For some moderate coupling strengths the threshold is strongly reduced, which is explained by the SO coupling-induced band flattening in one of the sub-lattices. We explain why simultaneous Rabi and SO coupling are necessary ingredients for LDT threshold cancellation and show that strong SO coupling drives the system into the state where its evolution becomes similar to the evolution of a one-component system. We also find that defocusing nonlinearity can lead to localization of the states which are delocalized in the linear limit.