Raman coupling of Zeeman sublevels in an alkali-metal Bose-Einstein condensate

We investigate amplitude and phase control of the components of the spinor order parameter of a ⁸⁷Rb Bose-Einstein condensate. By modeling the interaction of the multilevel atomic system with a pair of Raman-detuned laser pulses, we show that it is possible to construct a pulse-sequence protocol for producing a desired state change within a single Zeeman manifold. We present several successful elementary tests of this protocol in both the F=1 and F=2 Zeeman manifolds of ⁸⁷Rb using the D₁ transitions. We describe specific features of the interaction, which are important for multimode, spatially varying field configurations, including the role of state-dependent, light-induced potentials.