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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Supersolid devil's staircases of spin-orbit-coupled bosons in optical lattices

Daisuke Yamamoto1,*, Kotaro Bannai2, Nobuo Furukawa2, and Carlos A. R. Sá de Melo3

  • 1Department of Physics, College of Humanities and Sciences, Nihon University, Sakurajosui, Setagaya, Tokyo 156-8550, Japan
  • 2Department of Physics and Mathematics, Aoyama Gakuin University, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5258, Japan
  • 3School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA

  • *yamamoto.daisuke21@nihon-u.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L032023 – Published 12 August, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L032023

Abstract

We study the emergence of supersolid devil's staircases of spin-orbit-coupled bosons loaded in optical lattices. We consider two- and three-dimensional systems of pseudo-spin-1/2 bosons interacting via local spin-dependent interactions. These interactions together with spin-orbit coupling produce length scales that are commensurate to the lattice spacing. This commensurability leads to devil's staircases of supersolids, with fractal Hausdorff dimensions, which arise from uniform superfluid phases. We show that umklapp processes are essential for the existence of commensurate supersolids, and that without them the devil's staircase does not exist. Lastly, we emphasize the generality of our results, suggest experiments that can unveil these unusual predictions, and discuss potential applications to the case of Rb87.

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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L032023– Published 12 August, 2022
  • Received 14 January 2022
  • Revised 10 May 2022
  • Accepted 12 July 2022
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