Textures of spin-orbit coupled F = 2 spinor Bose Einstein condensates

Abstract

Motivated by recent studies of Bose Einstein condensates (BECs) under synthetic gauge fields, we study the textures of F = 2 BECs with a Rashba like spin-orbit coupling (SOC). By analyzing the SOC term, we demonstrate that the SOC favors a helical modulation of order parameters (OPs). In addition, we find the stable textures obtained by the numerical minimization of the Gross-Pitaevskii energy functional and interpret them as a one- or two-dimensional helical modulation. In the parameter region where the polar OP is favored, the emergence of the skyrmion of the uniaxial polar OP and its energetics relative to one-dimensional helical modulation of biaxial polar OP are discussed in details. Through the comparison of the lattice texture in the cyclic favored parameter region and uniaxial polar skyrmion, we show the instability of the lattice of the uniaxial polar skyrmion. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.