Quantum correlations of spin-1 atoms in an optical lattice

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the system of cold spin-1 atoms in a one dimensional optical lattice in relation with squeezing and entanglement. By using the corresponding Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian, both superfluid and Mott-insulator phases are studied by using numerical methods in the mean-field approximation. To observe the presence of entanglement, we used a squeezing measure as a criterion for quantum correlations. We further investigate the two interaction regimes, namely ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic in the case of zero and nonzero but very small angle between the counterpropagating laser beams that form the optical lattice. States in the superfluid phase are calculated analytically by using the perturbation theory.