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arXiv:1302.1189 · New Journal of Physics

Fulde–Ferrell pairing instability in spin–orbit coupled Fermi gas

Lin Dong, Lei Jiang, Han Pu

Published Jul 17, 2013• 54 citations
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Abstract

We consider finite-momentum pairing of a superfluid ultracold Fermi gas subject to spin–orbit coupling and an effective Zeeman field. Based on our two-body and mean-field many-body calculations, we show that the Fulde–Ferrell-type superfluid dominates in both zero- and finite-temperature phase diagrams. We examine the origin and properties of this novel phase systematically.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/15/7/075014

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We consider finite-momentum pairing of a superfluid ultracold Fermi gas subject to spin–orbit coupling and an effective Zeeman field. Based on our two-body and mean-field many-body calculations, we show that the Fulde–Ferrell-type superfluid dominates in both zero- and finite-temperature phase diagrams. We examine the origin and properties of this novel phase systematically.
We theoretically analyze the pairing instability of a three-dimensional ultracold atomic Fermi gas towards a Fulde-Ferrell superfluid, in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling and in-plane Zeeman field. We use the standard Thouless criterion for the onset of superfluidity, with which the effect of pair fluctuations is partially taken into account by approximately using a mean-field chemical potential at zero temperature. This gives rise to an improved prediction of the superfluid transition temperature beyond mean field, particularly in the strong-coupling unitary limit. We also investigate the pairing instability with increasing Rashba spin-orbit coupling, along the crossover from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluid to a Bose-Einstein condensate of rashbons (i.e., the tightly bound state of two fermions formed by strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling).
Topological Fermi superfluids have played the central role in various fields of physics. However, all previous studies focus on the cases where Cooper pairs have zero center-of-mass momenta (i.e., normal superfluids). The topology of Fulde–Ferrell (FF) superfluids with nonzero momentum pairings have never been explored until recent findings that FF superfluids in a spin–orbit (SO) coupled Fermi gas can accommodate Majorana fermions in real space in low dimensions and Weyl fermions in momentum space in three dimension. In this review, we first discuss the mechanism of pairings in SO coupled Fermi gases in optical lattices subject to Zeeman fields, showing that SO coupling as well as Zeeman fields enhance FF states while suppress Larkin–Ovchinnikov states. We then present the low temperature phase diagram including both FF superfluids and topological FF superfluids phases in both two dimension and three dimension. In one dimension, Majorana fermions as well as phase dependent order parameter are visualized. In three dimension, we show the properties of Weyl fermions in momentum space such as anisotropic linear dispersion, Fermi arch, and gaplessness away from k⊥ = 0. Finally, we discuss some possible methods to probe FF superfluids and topological FF superfluids in cold atom systems.
We investigate properties of exotic pairing states in a three-dimensional Fermi gas with three-dimensional spin-orbit coupling and an effective Zeeman field. The interplay of spin-orbit coupling, effective Zeeman field, and pairing can lead to first-order phase transitions between different phases, and to interesting nodal superfluid states with gapless surfaces in the momentum space. We then demonstrate that pairing states with zero center-of-mass momentum are unstable against Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states, with a finite center-of-mass momentum opposite to the direction of the effective Zeeman field. Unlike conventional FFLO states, these FFLO states are induced by the coexistence of spin-orbit coupling and Fermi surface deformation, and have intriguing features like first-order transitions between different FFLO states, nodal FFLO states with gapless surfaces in momentum space, and exotic fully gapped FFLO states. With the recent theoretical proposals for realizing three-dimensional spin-orbit coupling in ultracold atomic gases, our work is helpful for future experimental studies and provides valuable information for the general understanding of pairing physics in spin-orbit-coupled fermionic systems.
We theoretically investigate the inhomogeneous Fulde–Ferrell (FF) superfluidity in a three-dimensional atomic Fermi gas with Rashba spin–orbit coupling near a broad Feshbach resonance. We show that within mean-field theory the FF superfluid state is always more favorable than the standard Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer superfluid state when an in-plane Zeeman field is applied. We present a qualitative finite-temperature phase diagram near resonance and argue that the predicted FF superfluid is observable with experimentally attainable temperatures (i.e. T ∼ 0.2 T F , where T F is the characteristic Fermi degenerate temperature).
We investigate the thermodynamic properties of a superfluid Fermi gas subject to Rashba spin-orbit coupling and effective Zeeman field. We adopt a TTT-matrix scheme that takes beyond-mean-field effects, which are important for strongly interacting systems, into account. We focus on the calculation of two important quantities: the superfluid transition temperature and the isothermal compressibility. Our calculation shows very distinct influences of the out-of-plane and the in-plane Zeeman fields on the Fermi gas. We also confirm that the in-plane Zeeman field induces a Fulde-Ferrell superfluid below the critical temperature and an exotic finite-momentum pseudogap phase above the critical temperature.
We show that the combination of spin-orbit coupling and in-plane Zeeman field in a two-dimensional degenerate Fermi gas can lead to a larger parameter region for Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phases than that using spin-imbalanced Fermi gases. The resulting FFLO superfluids are also more stable due to the enhanced energy difference between FFLO and conventional Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) excited states. We clarify the crucial role of the symmetry of Fermi surface on the formation of finite momentum pairing. The phase diagram for FFLO superfluids is obtained in the BCS-BEC crossover region and possible experimental observations of FFLO phases are discussed.