Interplay of the Staggered and Three-Body Interaction Potentials on the Quantum Phases of a Spin-1 Ultracold Atom in an Optical Lattice

The interplay of the staggered and the three-body interaction potentials on the quantum phases of a spin-1 Bose Hubbard model using a mean field approximation (MFA) is studied. In the antiferromagnetic (AF) case, a smaller value of the staggered potential (SP) results in the charge and the spin density wave ordering along with the Mott insulator (MI) and the staggered superfluid (SSF) phases. While the competition between two types of the potential leads to the stabilization of the higher order MI and charge density wave (CDW) phases with increasing three-body interaction strength. Further, the spin eigenvalue and nematic order parameters are calculated to scrutinize the spin singlet-nematic formation in the MI and the CDW phases and spin population fractions to analyze the nature of the SSF phase. A signature of the spin density wave (SDW) pattern is also observed in the gapped phase lobes. In case of a purely three-body interaction, the third and higher order insulating lobes become dominant with increasing staggered potential strength. Subsequently, all MFA phase diagrams are then nicely corroborated with the analytical results obtained using a perturbative expansion corresponding to the AF and ferromagnetic cases.