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arXiv:1405.6717 · Physical Review Letters

Mobile Magnetic Impurities in a Fermi Superfluid: A Route to Designer Molecules

Sarang Gopalakrishnan, Colin Parker, Eugene Demler

Published Jan 28, 2015• 9 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A magnetic impurity in a fermionic superfluid hosts bound quasiparticle states known as Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states. We argue here that, if the impurity is mobile (i.e., has a finite mass), the impurity and its bound Yu-Shiba-Rusinov quasiparticle move together as a midgap molecule, which has an unusual "Mexican-hat" dispersion that is tunable via the fermion density. We map out the impurity dispersion, which consists of an "atomic" branch (in which the impurity is dressed by quasiparticle pairs) and a "molecular" branch (in which the impurity binds a quasiparticle). We discuss the experimental realization and detection of midgap Shiba molecules, focusing on Li-Cs mixtures, and comment on the prospects they offer for realizing exotic many-body states.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.114.045301

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A magnetic impurity in a fermionic superfluid hosts bound quasiparticle states known as Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states. We argue here that, if the impurity is mobile (i.e., has a finite mass), the impurity and its bound Yu-Shiba-Rusinov quasiparticle move together as a midgap molecule, which has an unusual "Mexican-hat" dispersion that is tunable via the fermion density. We map out the impurity dispersion, which consists of an "atomic" branch (in which the impurity is dressed by quasiparticle pairs) and a "molecular" branch (in which the impurity binds a quasiparticle). We discuss the experimental realization and detection of midgap Shiba molecules, focusing on Li-Cs mixtures, and comment on the prospects they offer for realizing exotic many-body states.
In cold atom experiments, we have tools to create spin dependent optical potential, which gives us the possibility to achieve classical magnetic impurity in cold atom systems. Here we study the physics of magnetic impurity. A localized magnetic impurity can induce a mid-gap bound state, the Yu-Shiba state, in superfluid Fermi gas. We propose a modified RF spectroscopy to measure the local density of states, as a cold-atom analog of STM, which may be used to detect Yu-Shiba state. In addition, magnetic impurity can locally induce population imbalance in the system, potentially providing a method to realize FFLO-like state in a controlled way. We demonstrate such a possibility by solving the self-consist Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations.
For a two-dimensional ultra-cold Fermi superfluid with an effective static magnetic impurity, we theoretically investigated the variation of the Yu–Shiba–Rusinov (YSR) bound state in the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover regime. Within the framework of mean-field theory, analytical results of the YSR bound state energy were obtained as a function of the interaction parameters. First, when the background Fermi superfluid system stays in the weakly interacting BCS regime, we found that the YSR bound state energy is linearly dependent on the gap parameter with its coefficient slightly different from previous results. Second, we discovered re-entrance phenomena for the YSR state and an upper bound of the strength of the interaction between the paired atoms. By carefully analyzing the bound state energy as a function of the interaction parameters, we obtained a phase diagram showing the existence of the YSR state. Finally, we concluded that the re-entrance phenomena and the critical point can be easily experimentally detected through measurement of radio-frequency spectroscopy and density of states using current experimental techniques.
The role of impurities as experimental probes in the detection of quantum material properties is well appreciated. Here we study the effect of a single classical magnetic impurity in trapped ultracold Fermi superfluids. Depending on its shape and strength, a magnetic impurity can induce single or multiple midgap bound states in a superfluid Fermi gas. The multiple midgap states could coincide with the development of a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase within the superfluid. As an analog of the scanning tunneling microsope, we propose a modified rf spectroscopic method to measure the local density of states which can be employed to detect these states and other quantum phases of cold atoms. A key result of our self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes calculations is that a magnetic impurity can controllably induce an FFLO state at currently accessible experimental parameters.
We consider a localized impurity atom that interacts with a cloud of fermions in the paired state. We develop an effective scattering length description of the interaction between an impurity and a fermionic atom using their vacuum scattering length. Treating the pairing of fermions at the mean-field level, we show that the impurity atom acts like a magnetic impurity in the condensed matter context, and leads to the formation of a pair of Shiba bound states inside the superconducting gap. In addition, the impurity atom can lead to the formation of deeply bound states below the Fermi sea.
We consider a localized impurity atom that interacts with a cloud of fermions in the paired state. We develop an effective scattering length description of the interaction between an impurity and a fermionic atom using their vacuum scattering length. Treating the pairing of fermions at the mean-field level, we show that the impurity atom acts like a magnetic impurity in the condensed matter context, and leads to the formation of a pair of Shiba bound states inside the superconducting gap. In addition, the impurity atom can lead to the formation of deeply bound states below the Fermi sea.
The topic of the present lecture notes are two-species quantum mixtures composed of a deeply degenerate Fermi gas and a second component, the latter being fermionic or bosonic. A key ingredient is the possibility to tune the sss-wave interaction between the different species by means of magnetically controlled Feshbach resonances, which allow us to investigate regimes of strong interactions. In two case studies, we review our experiments on mixtures of 6^66Li fermions with fermionic 40^{40}40K or bosonic 41^{41}41K atoms and on mixtures of fermionic 161^{161}161Dy with 40^{40}40K atoms. We cover various topics of fermionic quantum many-body physics, ranging from impurity physics and quasiparticles over phase separation to the formation of ultracold molecules and progress towards novel superfluids.