Trapped two-dimensional condensates with synthetic spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

We study trapped 2D atomic Bose-Einstein condensates with spin-independent interactions in the presence of an isotropic spin-orbit coupling, showing that a rich physics results from the non-trivial interplay between spin-orbit coupling, confinement and inter-atomic interactions. For low interactions two types of half-vortex solutions with different winding occur, whereas strong-enough repulsive interactions result in a stripe-phase similar to that predicted for homogeneous condensates. Intermediate interaction regimes are characterized for large enough spin-orbit coupling by an hexagonally-symmetric phase with a triangular lattice of density minima similar to that observed in rapidly rotating condensates.