Mean-field analysis of spinor bosons in optical superlattices

We study the ground-state phase diagram of spinless and spin-1 bosons in optical superlattices using a Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian that includes spin-dependent interactions. We decouple the unit cells of the superlattice via a mean-field approach and take into account the dynamics within the unit cell exactly. The system supports Mott-insulating as well as superfluid phases. The transitions between these phases are second order for spinless bosons and second or first order for spin-1 bosons. Antiferromagnetic interactions energetically penalize high-spin configurations and elongate all Mott lobes, especially the ones corresponding to an even atom number on each lattice site. We find that the quadratic Zeeman effect lifts the degeneracy between different polar superfluid phases leading to additional metastable phases and first-order phase transitions. Finally, we show that an energy offset between the two sites of the unit cell induces a staircase of single-atom tunneling resonances, which surprisingly survives well into the superfluid regime.