Periodically dressed Bose-Einstein condensate: a superfluid with an anisotropic and variable critical velocity.

We consider a two-component atomic gas illumined by two intersecting laser beams which induce Raman coupling between the components. This spatially periodic coupling modifies the dispersion relation of the gas. Properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate of such a gas are strongly affected by this modification. Using the quasiparticle excitation spectrum derived from a Bogoliubov transformation, the Landau critical velocity is found to be anisotropic and can be widely tuned by varying properties of the dressing laser beams.