We present a systematic theoretical study of the BCS-BEC crossover in two-dimensional Fermi gases with Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC). By solving the exact two-body problem in the presence of an attractive short-range interaction we show that the SOC enhances the formation of the bound state: the binding energy E(B) and effective mass m(B) of the bound state grows along with the increase of the SOC. For the many-body problem, even at weak attraction, a dilute Fermi gas can evolve from a BCS superfluid state to a Bose condensation of molecules when the SOC becomes comparable to the Fermi momentum. The ground-state properties and the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition temperature are studied, and analytical results are obtained in various limits. For large SOC, the BKT transition temperature recovers that for a Bose gas with an effective mass m(B). We find that the condensate and superfluid densities have distinct behaviors in the presence of SOC: the condensate density is generally enhanced by the SOC due to the increase of the molecule binding; the superfluid density is suppressed because of the nontrivial molecule effective mass m(B).
We present a systematic theoretical study of the BCS-BEC crossover in two-dimensional Fermi gases with Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC). By solving the exact two-body problem in the presence of an attractive short-range interaction we show that the SOC enhances the formation of the bound state: the binding energy E(B) and effective mass m(B) of the bound state grows along with the increase of the SOC. For the many-body problem, even at weak attraction, a dilute Fermi gas can evolve from a BCS superfluid state to a Bose condensation of molecules when the SOC becomes comparable to the Fermi momentum. The ground-state properties and the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition temperature are studied, and analytical results are obtained in various limits. For large SOC, the BKT transition temperature recovers that for a Bose gas with an effective mass m(B). We find that the condensate and superfluid densities have distinct behaviors in the presence of SOC: the condensate density is generally enhanced by the SOC due to the increase of the molecule binding; the superfluid density is suppressed because of the nontrivial molecule effective mass m(B).
The recent experimental realization of spin-orbit coupling for ultracold atoms has generated much interest in the physics of spin-orbit-coupled degenerate Fermi gases. Although recently the BCS-BEC crossover in three-dimensional (3D) spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gases has been intensively studied, the corresponding two-dimensional (2D) crossover physics has remained unexplored. In this paper, we investigate, both numerically and analytically, the BCS-BEC crossover physics in 2D degenerate Fermi gases in the presence of the Rashba type of spin-orbit coupling. We derive the mean-field gap and atom-number equations suitable for 2D spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gases and solve them numerically and self-consistently, from which the dependence of the ground-state properties (chemical potential, superfluid pairing gap, ground-state energy per atom) on the system parameters (e.g., binding energy, spin-orbit-coupling strength) is obtained. Furthermore, we derive analytical expressions for these ground-state quantities, which agree well with our numerical results within a broad parameter region. Such analytical expressions also agree qualitatively with previous numerical results for 3D spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gases, where analytical results are lacking. We show that, with increasing spin-orbit coupling (SOC) strength, the chemical potential is shifted by a constant determined by the SOC strength. The superfluid pairing gap is enhanced significantly in the BCS limit for strong SOC, but increases only slightly in the BEC limit.
We study the BCS-Bose Einstein Condensation (BEC) crossover of a three dimensional spin polarized Fermi gas with Rashba spin-orbital-coupling (SOC). At finite temperature, the effects of non-condensed pairs due to the thermal excitation are considered based on the G0G pair fluctuation theory. These fluctuations generate a pseudogap even persistent above Tc. Within this framework, the Sarma state or the spin polarized superfluid state and polarized pseudogap state are explored in detail. The resulting Tc curves show that the enhancement of pairing due to the SOC roughly cancels out the suppression of pairing due to the population imbalance. Thus we observed that in a large portion of the parameter space, the polarized superfluid state are stabilized by the SOC.
We investigate the effects of Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling (SOC) on the condensed density and superfluid density tensor of a two-component Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover at zero temperature. In anisotropic three dimensions (3D), we find that SOC has an opposite effect on condensation (enhanced) and superfluidity (suppressed in the SOC direction), and this effect becomes most pronounced for very weak interactions and the SOC strength being larger than a characteristic value. Furthermore, as functions of SOC strength, the condensed density changes monotonically for all interaction parameters, while the superfluid density has a minimum when the interaction parameter is below a critical value. We also discuss the isotropic two-dimensional case where analytical expressions for the gap and number equations are obtained and the same phenomena are found as that of the 3D case.
Extensive research has been lavished on the effects of spin-orbit couplings (SOCs) in attractively interacting Fermi systems in both neutral cold-atom systems and condensed-matter systems. Recently, it was suggested that a SOC drives a class of BCS to Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover that is different from the conventional one without a SOC. Here, we explore what are the most relevant physical quantities to describe such a BCS to BEC crossover and their experimental detections. We extend the concepts of the coherence length and ``Cooper-pair size'' in the absence of SOC to Fermi systems with SOC. We investigate the dependence of chemical potential, coherence length, and Cooper-pair size on the SOC strength and the scattering length at three dimensions (3D) (the bound-state energy at 2D) for three attractively interacting Fermi gases with 3D Rashba, 3D Weyl, and 2D Rashba SOC, respectively. We show that only the coherence length can be used to characterize this BCS to BEC crossover. Furthermore, it is the only length which can be directly measured by radio-frequency dissociation spectra type of experiments. We stress crucial differences among the coherence length, Cooper-pair size, and the two-body bound-state size. Our results provide the fundamental and global picture of the BCS to BEC crossover and its experimental detections in various cold-atom and condensed-matter systems.
Extensive research has been lavished on the effects of spin-orbit couplings (SOCs) in attractively interacting Fermi systems in both neutral cold-atom systems and condensed-matter systems. Recently, it was suggested that a SOC drives a class of BCS to Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover that is different from the conventional one without a SOC. Here, we explore what are the most relevant physical quantities to describe such a BCS to BEC crossover and their experimental detections. We extend the concepts of the coherence length and ``Cooper-pair size'' in the absence of SOC to Fermi systems with SOC. We investigate the dependence of chemical potential, coherence length, and Cooper-pair size on the SOC strength and the scattering length at three dimensions (3D) (the bound-state energy at 2D) for three attractively interacting Fermi gases with 3D Rashba, 3D Weyl, and 2D Rashba SOC, respectively. We show that only the coherence length can be used to characterize this BCS to BEC crossover. Furthermore, it is the only length which can be directly measured by radio-frequency dissociation spectra type of experiments. We stress crucial differences among the coherence length, Cooper-pair size, and the two-body bound-state size. Our results provide the fundamental and global picture of the BCS to BEC crossover and its experimental detections in various cold-atom and condensed-matter systems.
We investigate the Gorkov--Melik-Barkhudarov (GM) correction to superfluid transition temperature in two-dimensional Fermi gases with Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) across the SOC-driven BCS-BEC crossover. In the calculation of the induced interaction, we find that the spin-component mixing due to SOC can induce both of the conventional screening and additional antiscreening contributions that interplay significantly in the strong SOC regime. While the GM correction generally lowers the estimate of transition temperature, it turns out that at a fixed weak interaction, the correction effect exhibits a crossover behavior where the ratio between the estimates without and with the correction first decreases with SOC and then becomes insensitive to SOC when it goes into the strong SOC regime. We demonstrate the applicability of the GM correction by comparing the zero-temperature condensate fraction with the recent quantum Monte Carlo results.