Spin-orbit coupling mediated photon-like resonance for a single atom trapped in a symmetric double well

Abstract

We employ a method involving coherent periodic modulation of Raman laser intensity to induce resonance transitions between energy levels of a spin-orbit coupled atom in a symmetric double-well trap. By integrating photon-assisted tunneling (PAT) technique with spin-orbit coupling (SOC), we achieve resonance transitions between the predefined energy levels of the atom, thereby enabling further precise control of the atom's dynamics. We observe that such photon-like resonance can induce a transition from a localized state to atomic Rabi oscillation between two wells, or effectively reduce tunneling as manifested by a quantum beating phenomenon. Moreover, such resonance transitions have the potential to induce spin flipping in a spin-orbit coupled atom. Additionally, the SOC-mediated transition from multiphoton resonance to fundamental resonance and the SOC-induced resonance suppression are also discovered. In these cases, the analytical results of the effective coupling coefficients of the resonance transition derived from a four-level model can account for the entire dynamics, demonstrating surprisingly good agreement with the numerically exact results based on the realistic continuous model.