Supersolid phase of cold atoms

Abstract

Supersolid phase is a phase of matter that is characterized by the combination of the off-diagonal long-range order of superfluid and the diagonal long-range order of solid. Cold atoms with spin–orbit-coupling, contact interaction and long-range interaction can provide systems for the research of supersolid phase. Under the effect of spin-dependent potential and spin–orbit-coupling, hard-core ultra-cold atoms with contact interaction can be shown to construct supersolid phase. The combination of soft-core long-range interaction and spin–orbit coupling can establish exotic supersolid phase with spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry. The optical Bragg scattering of cold atoms in optical lattices can be used to detect supersolid phase. The study of supersolid phase will be helpful to the researches of matter phases.