Quantum beat phenomenon presence in coherent spin dynamics of spin-2 $^{87}$Rb atoms in a deep optical lattice

Abstract

Motivated by the recent experimental work (A. Widera, \textit{et al}, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 19045), we study the collisional spin dynamics of two spin-2 $% ^{87}$Rb atoms confined in a deep optical lattice. When the system is initialized as $|0,0>$, three different two-particle Zeeman states are involved in the time evolution due to the conservation of magnetization. For a large magnetic field $B>0.8$ Guass, the spin coherent dynamics reduces to a Rabi-like oscillation between the states $|0,0>$ and $% |1,-1>$. However, under a small magnetic field, a general three-level coherent oscillation displays. In particular, around a critical magnetic field $B_{c}\simeq 0.48$ Guass, the probability in the Zeeman states $% |2,-2> $ exhibits a novel quantum beat phenomenon, ready to be confirmed in future experiments.