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arXiv:0707.2625 · Physical Review A

Radio-frequency spectroscopy of trapped Fermi gases with population imbalance

Yan He, Chih-Chun Chien, Qijin Chen, Kathryn Levin

Published Jan 7, 2008• 18 citations
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Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments, we address the behavior and evolution of radio-frequency (RF) spectra as temperature and polarization are varied in population-imbalanced Fermi gases from above to below ${T}_{c}$. We discuss a series of scenarios for the experimentally observed zero-temperature pseudogap phase and show how present and future RF experiments may help in its elucidation. We conclude that the experiments of Zwierlein and co-workers at the lowest $T$ may well reflect ground-state properties, but take issue with their claim that the pairing gap survives up to temperatures of the order of the degeneracy temperature ${T}_{F}$ at unitarity.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.77.011602

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Motivated by recent experiments, we address the behavior and evolution of radio-frequency (RF) spectra as temperature and polarization are varied in population-imbalanced Fermi gases from above to below Tc{T}_{c}Tc​. We discuss a series of scenarios for the experimentally observed zero-temperature pseudogap phase and show how present and future RF experiments may help in its elucidation. We conclude that the experiments of Zwierlein and co-workers at the lowest TTT may well reflect ground-state properties, but take issue with their claim that the pairing gap survives up to temperatures of the order of the degeneracy temperature TF{T}_{F}TF​ at unitarity.
We calculate the radio-frequency spectrum of balanced and imbalanced ultracold Fermi gases in the normal phase at unitarity. For the homogeneous case the spectrum of both the majority and minority components always has a single peak even in the pseudogap regime. We furthermore show how the double-peak structures observed in recent experiments arise due to the inhomogeneity of the trapped gas. The main experimental features observed above the critical temperature in the recent experiment of Schunck et al. [Science 316, 867 (2007)] are recovered with no fitting parameters.
In this paper we present an overview of radio frequency (RF) spectroscopy in the atomic Fermi superfluids. An ultimate goal is to suggest new directions in the cold gas research agenda from the condensed matter perspective.Our focus is on the experimental and theoretical literature of cold gases and photoemission spectroscopy of the cuprates particularly as it pertains to areas of overlap. This paper contains a systematic overview of the theory of RF spectroscopy, both momentum integrated and momentum resolved. We discuss the effects of traps, population imbalance, final state interactions over the entire range of temperatures and compare theory and experiment. We show that this broad range of phenomena can be accomodated within the BCS-Leggett description of BCS-BEC crossover and that this scheme also captures some of the central observations in photoemission experiments in the cuprates. In this last context, we note that the key themes which have emerged in cuprate photoemission studies involve characterization of the fermionic self energy, of the pseudogap and of the effects of superconducting coherence (in passing from above to below the superfluid transition temperature, TcT_cTc​).These issues have a counterpart in the cold Fermi gases and it would be most useful in future to use these atomic systems to address these and the more sweeping question of how to describe that anomalous superfluid phase which forms in the presence of a normal state excitation gap.
We present a theoretical interpretation of radio frequency (RF) pairing gap experiments in trapped atomic Fermi gases, over the entire range of the BCS--Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover, for temperatures above and below Tc{T}_{c}Tc​. Our calculated RF excitation spectra, as well as the density profiles on which they are based, are in semiquantitative agreement with experiment. We provide a detailed analysis of the physical origin of the two different peak features seen in RF spectra, one associated with nearly free atoms at the edge of the trap, and the other with (quasi-)bound fermion pairs.
We study the finite temperature TTT behavior of trapped Fermi gases as they undergo BCS--Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover, in the presence of a population imbalance. Our results, in qualitative agreement with recent experiments, show how the superfluid phase transition is directly reflected in the particle density profiles. We demonstrate that at $T\ensuremath{\ne}0$ and in the near-BEC and unitary regimes, the polarization is excluded from the superfluid core. Importantly, a substantial polarization fraction is carried by a normal region of the trap having strong pair correlations, which we associate with noncondensed pairs or the ``pseudogap phase.''
We present a simple and systematic characterization of the radio frequency (rf) spectra of homogeneous, paired atomic Fermi gases at general temperatures T in the presence of final-state interactions. The spectra, consisting of possible bound states and positive as well as negative detuning (nu) continua, satisfy exactly the zeroth- and first-moment sum rules at all T. We show how to best extract the pairing gap and how to detect the nu<0 continuum arising from thermally excited quasiparticles, not yet seen experimentally. We explain semiquantitatively recent rf experiments on "bound-bound" transitions, predicting effects of varying temperature.
We consider density-imbalanced Fermi gases of atoms in the strongly interacting, i.e., unitarity, regime. The Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations for a trapped superfluid are solved. They take into account the finite size of the system, as well as give rise to both phase separation and Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov-type oscillations in the order parameter. We show how radio-frequency spectroscopy reflects the phase separation, and can provide direct evidence of the FFLO-type oscillations via observing the nodes of the order parameter.