Spatial Landau-Zener-Stückelberg interference in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We investigate the St\"uckelberg oscillations of a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate subject to a spatially inhomogeneous transverse magnetic field and a periodic longitudinal field. We show that the time-domain St\"uckelberg oscillations result in modulations in the density profiles of all spin components due to the spatial inhomogeneity of the transverse field. This phenomenon represents the Landau-Zener-St\"uckelberg interference in the space domain. Since the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction between spin-1 atoms induces an inhomogeneous effective magnetic field, interference fringes also appear if a dipolar spinor condensate is driven periodically. We also point out some potential applications of this spatial Landau-Zener-St\"ukelberg interference.