We calculate the zero-temperature (T=0) phase diagram of a polarized two-component Fermi gas in an array of weakly coupled parallel one-dimensional (1D) "tubes" produced by a two-dimensional optical lattice. Increasing the lattice strength drives a crossover from three-dimensional (3D) to 1D behavior, stabilizing the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) modulated superfluid phase. We argue that the most promising regime for observing the FFLO phase is in the quasi-1D regime, where the atomic motion is largely 1D but there is weak tunneling in the other directions that stabilizes long-range order. In the FFLO phase, we describe a phase transition where the quasiparticle spectrum changes from gapless near the 3D regime to gapped in quasi-1D.
We calculate the zero-temperature (T=0) phase diagram of a polarized two-component Fermi gas in an array of weakly coupled parallel one-dimensional (1D) "tubes" produced by a two-dimensional optical lattice. Increasing the lattice strength drives a crossover from three-dimensional (3D) to 1D behavior, stabilizing the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) modulated superfluid phase. We argue that the most promising regime for observing the FFLO phase is in the quasi-1D regime, where the atomic motion is largely 1D but there is weak tunneling in the other directions that stabilizes long-range order. In the FFLO phase, we describe a phase transition where the quasiparticle spectrum changes from gapless near the 3D regime to gapped in quasi-1D.
We consider the quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) system realized by an array of weakly coupled parallel one-dimensional ``tubes'' in a two-dimensional lattice which permits free motion of atoms in an axial direction in the presence of a Zeeman field, Rashba type spin-orbit coupling (SOC), and an s-wave attractive interaction, while the radial motion is tightly confined. We solve the zero-temperature (T=0) Bogoliubov--de Gennes (BdG) equations for the quasi-1D Fermi gas with the dispersion modified by tunneling between the tubes and show that the T=0 phase diagram hosts the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase with nonzero center-of-mass momentum Cooper pairs for small values of the SOC while for larger values of the SOC and high Zeeman fields the uniform superfluid phase with zero center-of-mass momentum Cooper pairs has an instability towards the topological uniform superfluid phase with Majorana fermions at the tube ends. Also, we show that tuning the two-dimensional optical lattice strength in this model allows one to explore the crossover behaviors of the phases during the transition between the three-dimensional and 1D systems and in general the FFLO (for small SOC) and the topological uniform superfluid phase (for large SOC) are favored as the system becomes more one dimensional. We also find evidence of the existence of a Zeeman-tuned topological quantum phase transition (TQPT) within the FFLO phase itself and, for large values of the Zeeman field and small SOC, the TQPT gives rise to a topologically distinct FFLO phase.
The Fulde-Ferrell Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) type superconductor is an exotic form of matter known as a supersolid because it simultaneously supports superfluid and magnetic order. In both condensed matter and ultracold atomic gases, this phase has yet to be conclusively observed despite long interest in both theory and experiment. In one-dimension (1D), unlike expectations for higher dimensions, the FFLO phase is found in a large region of the phase diagram [1]. The effect of quantum and thermal fluctuations, however, are expected to be reduced in higher dimensions. These considerations motivated the proposal to search for FFLO near the 1D-3D dimensional crossover [2], which we have identified and characterized [3]. We confine a spin-imbalanced Fermi gas of lithium 6 to an array of 1D tubes using a 2D optical lattice. We bring the system into the dimensional crossover by increasing the inter-tube tunneling rate and using a Feshbach resonance to tune interactions. The periodicity of these domain walls, which depends on the magnitude of the polarization, is a definitive signature of the FFLO phase. In this work, we develop new experimental and analytical methods to extract periodic signals that, if they indeed are domain walls, lay the foundation for full confirmation of the FFLO phase. [1] Y. A. Liao, A. S. C. Rittner, T. Paprotta, W. Li, G. B. Partridge, R. G. Hulet, S. K. Baur, and E. J. Mueller, “Spin-imbalance in a one-dimensional Fermi gas,” Nature 467, 567 (2010). [2] M. M. Parish, S. K. Baur, E. J. Mueller, and D. A. Huse, “Quasi-One- Dimensional Polarized Fermi Superfluids,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 250403 (2007). [3] M. C. Revelle, J. A. Fry, B. A. Olsen, and R. G. Hulet, “1D to 3D Crossover of a Spin-Imbalanced Fermi Gas,” Physical Review Letters 117 (2016).
We present a theory for a lattice array of weakly coupled one-dimensional ultracold attractive Fermi gases (1D tubes) with spin imbalance, where strong intratube quantum fluctuations invalidate mean-field theory. We first construct an effective field theory, which treats spin-charge mixing exactly, based on the Bethe ansatz solution of the 1D single tube problem. We show that the 1D Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state is a two-component Luttinger liquid, and its elementary excitations are fractional states carrying both charge and spin. We analyze the instability of the 1D FFLO state against intertube tunneling by renormalization group analysis, and find that it flows into either a polarized Fermi liquid or a FFLO superfluid, depending on the magnitude of interaction strength and spin imbalance. We obtain the phase diagram of the quasi-1D system and further determine the scaling of the superfluid transition temperature with intertube coupling.
Spin-polarized attractive Fermi gases in one-dimensional (1D) optical lattices are expected to be remarkably good candidates for the observation of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase. We model these systems with an attractive Hubbard model with population imbalance. By means of the density-matrix renormalization-group method, we compute the pairing correlations as well as the static spin and charge structure factors in the whole range from weak to strong coupling. We demonstrate that pairing correlations exhibit quasi-long-range order and oscillations at the wave number expected from the FFLO theory. However, we also show by numerically computing the mixed spin-charge static structure factor that charge and spin degrees of freedom appear to be coupled already for a small imbalance. We discuss the consequences of this coupling for the observation of the FFLO phase, as well as for the stabilization of the quasi-long-range order into long-range order by coupling many identical 1D systems, such as in quasi-1D optical lattices.
We study s-wave pairing of population imbalanced Fermi atoms in quasi two dimensions using a mean field theory. At zero temperature, we map out the phase diagram in the entire Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer-Bose Einstein condensation (BCS-BEC) crossover region by investigating the effect of weak atom tunneling between layers. We find that the superfluid phase stabilizes as one decreases the atom tunneling between layers. This allows one to control the superfluid-normal first order phase transition by tuning a single experimental parameter. Further, we find that a tunneling induced polarized superfluid phase appears in a narrow parameter region in the BEC regime. At Finite temperatures, we use a Landau-Ginzberg functional approach to investigate the possibility of spatially inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase in the weakly interacting BCS limit near the tricritical point of spatially homogenous superfluid, FFLO, and normal phases. We find that the normal-FFLO phase transition is first order transition as opposed to the continues transition predicted in zero temperature theories.
The evolution of an attractive polarized two-component Fermi gas at zero temperature is analyzed as its polarization is progressively decreased, from full polarization (corresponding to the polaronic limit) down to a critical polarization when superfluidity sets in. This critical polarization and the nature of the associated superfluid instability are determined within a fully self-consistent t-matrix approach implemented exactly at zero temperature. In this way, the polarization-vs-coupling phase diagram at zero temperature is constructed throughout the whole BCS-BEC crossover. Depending on the coupling strength of the interparticle interaction between the two components, the superfluid instability can be either toward a Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase or toward a standard polarized BCS phase. The evolution with polarization of the quasiparticle parameters in the normal Fermi gas turns out to be notably different in the two cases. When the instability is toward a polarized BCS superfluid, quasiparticles in the proximity of the two Fermi surfaces remain well defined for all polarizations. When the instability is instead toward an FFLO superfluid, precursor effects become apparent upon approaching the FFLO quantum critical point (QCP), where the quasiparticle residues vanish and the effective masses diverge. This behavior leads to a complete breakdown of the quasiparticle picture characteristic of a Fermi liquid, similarly to what occurs in heavy-fermion materials at an antiferromagnetic QCP. At unitarity, the system is further investigated at finite temperature, making it possible to identify a non-Fermi liquid region in the temperature-vs-polarization phase diagram associated with the underlying FFLO QCP.