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arXiv:1608.00478 · Physical Review A

Spin-orbit-coupled two-electron Fermi gases of ytterbium atoms

Bo Song, Chengdong He, Shanchao Zhang, Elnur Hajiyev, Wei Huang, Xiong-Jun Liu, Gyu-Boong Jo

Published Dec 27, 2016• 85 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We demonstrate all-optical implementation of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in a two-electron Fermi gas of $^{173}\mathrm{Yb}$ atoms by coupling two hyperfine ground states with a narrow optical transition. Due to the $\mathrm{SU}(N)$ symmetry of the $^{1}S_{0}$ ground-state manifold which is insensitive to external magnetic fields, an optical ac Stark effect is applied to split the ground spin states, which exhibits a high stability compared with experiments on alkali-metal and lanthanide atoms, and separate out an effective spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ subspace from other hyperfine levels for the realization of SOC. The dephasing spin dynamics when a momentum-dependent spin-orbit gap is suddenly opened and the asymmetric momentum distribution of the spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gas are observed as a hallmark of SOC. The realization of all-optical SOC for ytterbium fermions should offer a route to a long-lived spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gas and greatly expand our capability of studying spin-orbit physics with alkaline-earth-metal-like atoms.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.94.061604

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We demonstrate all-optical implementation of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in a two-electron Fermi gas of 173Yb^{173}\mathrm{Yb}173Yb atoms by coupling two hyperfine ground states with a narrow optical transition. Due to the SU(N)\mathrm{SU}(N)SU(N) symmetry of the 1S0^{1}S_{0}1S0​ ground-state manifold which is insensitive to external magnetic fields, an optical ac Stark effect is applied to split the ground spin states, which exhibits a high stability compared with experiments on alkali-metal and lanthanide atoms, and separate out an effective spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ subspace from other hyperfine levels for the realization of SOC. The dephasing spin dynamics when a momentum-dependent spin-orbit gap is suddenly opened and the asymmetric momentum distribution of the spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gas are observed as a hallmark of SOC. The realization of all-optical SOC for ytterbium fermions should offer a route to a long-lived spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gas and greatly expand our capability of studying spin-orbit physics with alkaline-earth-metal-like atoms.
Yb atoms. Using a differential optical Stark shift, we split the degeneracy of three hyperfine states in the ground manifold, and independently couple consecutive spin states with the equal Raman transitions. A relatively long-lived spin-orbit-coupled Fermi gas, readily being realized with a narrow optical transition, allows to explore a single-minimum dispersion where three minima of spin-1 system merge into and to monitor collective dipole modes of fermions in the strong coupling regime. The measured oscillation frequency of the dipole mode is compared with the semi-classical calculation in the single-particle regime. Our work should pave the way towards the characterization of spin-orbit-coupled fermions with large spin s >[Formula: see text] in the strong coupling regime.
Recent development of cooling and manipulating Ytterbium atoms opens a new avenue to investigate unprecedented atomic systems with SU(N) spin symmetry and orbital degrees of freedom. The available metastable states and narrow-line optical transitions of Ytterbium atoms allow for the versatile control of the system. Here, we first describe our apparatus for producing ultracold Ytterbium-173 quantum gases in an optical lattice. A gas of 3 × 104 Ytterbium173 atoms is routinely produced at T /TF ∼ 0.3, and loaded into an optical lattice potential. Then we report our recent progress on the spin orbital (SO) coupling interaction realized in optical lattice. As a novel quantum simulator, cold Ytterbium atoms with SO coupling provide a platform to explore the intriguing topological physics.
We review our recent experimental realization and investigation of a spin-orbit (SO) coupled Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and quantum degenerate Fermi gas. By using two counter-propagating Raman lasers and controlling the different frequency of two Raman lasers to engineer the atom-light interaction, we first study the SO coupling in BEC. Then we study SO coupling in Fermi gas. We observe the spin dephasing in spin dynamics and momentum distribution asymmetry of the equilibrium state as hallmarks of SO coupling in a Fermi gas. To clearly reveal the property of SO coupling Fermi gas, we also study the momentum-resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy which characterizes the energy-momentum dispersion and spin composition of the quantum states. We observe the change of fermion surfaces in different helicity branches with different atomic density, which indicates that a Lifshitz transition of the Fermi surface topology change can be found by further cooling the system. At last, we study the momentum-resolved Raman spectroscopy of an ultracold Fermi gas.
In this Letter, we report the first experimental realization and investigation of a spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas. Both spin dephasing in spin dynamics and momentum distribution asymmetry of the equilibrium state are observed as hallmarks of spin-orbit coupling in a Fermi gas. The single particle dispersion is mapped out by using momentum-resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy. From momentum distribution and momentum-resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy, we observe the change of fermion population in different helicity branches consistent with a finite temperature calculation, which indicates that a Lifshitz transition of the Fermi surface topology change can be found by further cooling the system.
We investigate the single-particle and collective excitations of a Rashba spin-orbit-coupled atomic Fermi gas with attractive interaction, loaded in a two-dimensional (2D) square optical lattice, in the presence of an effective out-of-plane Zeeman field. Our numerical calculations show that the many-body physics of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) side is strongly modified compared to the Fermi gases in the free space. The physics behind this statement lies in the fact that in the 2D lattice case the single-particle ground-state energy is four times degenerated, while without a lattice structure the ground state is infinitely degenerate, and because of that, the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in optical lattices gives rise to unusual properties entirely different from the continuum. For example, in the continuum, the pairing gap as well as the condensate fraction is strongly enhanced by the SOC strength on the BCS side. In the presence of lattice geometry the gap and the condensate fraction increase as a function of the SOC strength only at small fillings and a weak attraction limit. Moreover, we found that the speed of sound also exhibits different behavior: in the 3D and 2D continua, the slope of the Goldstone mode decreases as a function of the SOC strength, while in the lattice case the speed of sound increases monotonically with the SOC strength.
Motivated by recent experimental development, we investigate spin–orbit coupled repulsive Fermi atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice. Using the density-matrix renormalization group method, we calculate the momentum distribution function, gap, and spin-correlation function to reveal rich ground-state properties. We find that spin–orbit coupling (SOC) can generate unconventional momentum distribution, which depends crucially on the filling. We call the corresponding phase with zero gap the SOC-induced metallic phase. We also show that SOC can drive the system from the antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic Mott insulators with spin rotating. As a result, a second-order quantum phase transition between the spin-rotating ferromagnetic Mott insulator and the SOC-induced metallic phase is predicted at the strong SOC. Here spin rotating means the spin orientations of the nearest-neighbor sites are not parallel or antiparallel, i.e., they have an intersection angle Finally, we show that the momentum k peak , at which the peak of the spin-structure factor appears, can also be affected dramatically by SOC. The analytical expression of this momentum with respect to the SOC strength is also derived, which suggests that the predicted spin-rotating ferromagnetic ( k peak < π /2 ) and antiferromagnetic ( π /2 < k peak < π ) correlations can be detected experimentally by measuring the SOC-dependent spin-structure factor via time-of-flight imaging.