Coherent spinor dynamics in a spin-1 Bose condensate

Collisions in a thermal gas are perceived as random or incoherent as a consequence of the large numbers of initial and final quantum states accessible to the system. In a quantum gas, for example, a Bose–Einstein condensate or a degenerate Fermi gas, the phase space accessible to low-energy collisions is so restricted that collisions become coherent and reversible. Here, we report the observation of coherent spin-changing collisions in a gas of spin-1 bosons. Starting with condensates occupying two spin states, a condensate in the third spin state is coherently and reversibly created by atomic collisions. The observed dynamics are analogous to Josephson oscillations in weakly connected superconductors and represent a type of matter–wave four-wave mixing. The spin-dependent scattering length is determined from these oscillations to be −1.45(32) bohr. Finally, we demonstrate coherent control of the evolution of the system by applying differential phase shifts to the spin states using magnetic fields.