Nonreciprocal Floquet tunneling dynamics of spin-orbit-coupled bosonic atoms in a non-Hermitian double-well potential

Abstract

The stable tunneling dynamics in non-Hermitian quantum systems is one of the fundamental issues in the study of quantum transport. Nonreciprocal coupling, as another crucial manifestation of non-Hermiticity, exerts significant regulatory effects on the stability of quantum devices and on spin tunneling dynamics. Here we place spin-orbit-coupled bosonic atoms in a double-well potential with gain and loss, and investigate the effect of nonreciprocal coupling on the system dynamics. Through an analytical analysis of the Floquet states and the quasi-energy spectrum under periodic driving, we obtain the PT-symmetry phase diagram of the system. We further explore the synergistic regulation mechanism of several factors---including the strength of nonreciprocal coupling, the non-Hermitian strength arising from gain-loss, and the periodic driving---on stable spin-flip tunneling. The results show that precise manipulation of nonreciprocity and gain-loss can substantially enlarge the stable parameter region. In nonreciprocal systems with balanced gain and loss, the continuity or discreteness of the stable parameter region is determined by the parity of the driving-frequency ratio $Ω/ω$, and the spin-flip tunneling can be precisely controlled through the parameters $λ$ and $2\varepsilon/ω$. For the unbalanced gain-loss scenario, the equilibrium conditions for achieving stable spin-flip tunneling under different parities of $Ω/ω$ are further provided. These findings offer a new theoretical approach for realizing robust spin-flip tunneling, provide guiding significance for the study of quantum-state transport in non-Hermitian ultracold atomic systems, and also serve as a reference for the experimental design of novel spin-based quantum devices.