Spin-mixing dynamics in a spin-1 atomic condensate coupled with a molecular condensate

Abstract

We study the coherent spin-mixing dynamics in a spin-1 atomic condensate coupled with a molecular condensate. A model is proposed to include the photoassociation (PA) interaction in a spinor condensate. If only the ${m}_{F}=\ensuremath{-}1$ spin component can be converted into molecules, the combined dynamics of spin-mixing and PA can be described by nonlinearly coupled pendulums. We performed detailed numerical calculations on the antiferromagnetic spin-1 systems. We find the spin-mixing dynamics can be greatly controlled by the PA field. The PA field can enhance or suppress the period and amplitude of the spin oscillations, which provide more degrees of freedom to control the spin-mixing dynamics.