LIGHT-INDUCED SPIN HALL EFFECTS IN COLD ATOMS

We investigate spin Hall effects in cold atoms induced by gauge fields. For multilevel atoms interacting with external laser fields, e.g., , two-fold degenerate dressed states can be obtained under appropriate parameters configuration, which are defined as spin-up and spin-down in analogy with the spin-1/2 charged system. In our proposal, when the cold atoms moving in a spatially varying laser field, the effective spin-dependent gauge potential will lead to observable spin Hall currents that indicates spin Hall effects. Further analysis shows that the spin Hall effects are accessible for current experimental technique.