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arXiv:1911.03657 · Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Interaction-range effects and universality in the BCS-BEC crossover of spin-orbit–coupled Fermi gases

D. Giambastiani, M. Barsanti, M. L. Chiofalo

Published Oct 23, 2018• 1 citation
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Abstract

We explore the evolution of an ultracold quantum gas of interacting fermions crossing from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluidity to a Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of molecular bosons in the presence of a tunable-range interaction among the fermions and of an artificial magnetic field, which can be used to simulate a pseudo-spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and to produce topological states. We find that the crossover is affected by a competition between the finite range of the interaction and the SOC and that the threshold for the topological transition is affected by the interactions only in the small pair size, BEC-like, regime. Below , we find persistence of universal behavior in the critical temperature, chemical potential, and condensate fraction, provided that the pair correlation length is used as a driving parameter. Above threshold, universality is lost in the regime of large pair sizes. Here, the limiting ground state departs from a weakly interacting BCS-like one so that a different description is required. Our results can be relevant in view of current experiments with cold atoms in optical cavities, where tunable-range effective atomic interactions can be engineered.

DOI
10.1209/0295-5075/123/66001

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We explore the evolution of an ultracold quantum gas of interacting fermions crossing from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluidity to a Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of molecular bosons in the presence of a tunable-range interaction among the fermions and of an artificial magnetic field, which can be used to simulate a pseudo-spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and to produce topological states. We find that the crossover is affected by a competition between the finite range of the interaction and the SOC and that the threshold for the topological transition is affected by the interactions only in the small pair size, BEC-like, regime. Below , we find persistence of universal behavior in the critical temperature, chemical potential, and condensate fraction, provided that the pair correlation length is used as a driving parameter. Above threshold, universality is lost in the regime of large pair sizes. Here, the limiting ground state departs from a weakly interacting BCS-like one so that a different description is required. Our results can be relevant in view of current experiments with cold atoms in optical cavities, where tunable-range effective atomic interactions can be engineered.
We propose that the evolution of superfluidity from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) regime to the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) regime can be realized using ultracold Fermi gas coupled to a single-mode cavity. By the functional integral formalism, we derive an effective atom-only action, which mimics the two-component Fermi gas with tunable two-body interaction. First, we address the features of the cavity-mediated interaction. We find that the matter-light coupling creates an effective sss-wave scattering whose sign and amplitude are controlled by parameters of the cavity. Second, we discuss the fermionic superfluidity on the mean-field level, including the order parameter, chemical potential, quasiparticle excitation spectrum, momentum distribution, and dissociation temperature. It is shown that by varying the atom-cavity detuning, a BCS to BEC crossover occurs. In addition, the influences of the atomic collaborative effect and external pumping field on the pairing correlation are also studied.
We review the study of the superfluid phase transition in a system of fermions whose interaction can be tuned continuously along the crossover from Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) superconducting phase to a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC), also in the presence of a spin–orbit coupling. Below a critical temperature the system is characterized by an order parameter. Generally a mean field approximation cannot reproduce the correct behavior of the critical temperature Tc over the whole crossover. We analyze the crucial role of quantum fluctuations beyond the mean-field approach useful to find Tc along the crossover in the presence of a spin–orbit coupling, within a path integral approach. A formal and detailed derivation for the set of equations useful to derive Tc is performed in the presence of Rashba, Dresselhaus and Zeeman couplings. In particular in the case of only Rashba coupling, for which the spin–orbit effects are more relevant, the two-body bound state exists for any value of the interaction, namely in the full crossover. As a result the effective masses of the emerging bosonic excitations are finite also in the BCS regime.
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 discuss topological phase transitions in ultracold Fermi superfluids induced by interactions and artificial spin-orbit fields. We construct the phase diagram for population-imbalanced systems at zero and finite temperatures, and analyze spectroscopic and thermodynamic properties to characterize various phase transitions. For balanced systems, the evolution from Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer to Bose-Einstein-condensate superfluids in the presence of spin-orbit effects is only a crossover as the system remains fully gapped, even though a triplet component of the order parameter emerges in the helicity basis. However, for imbalanced populations, spin-orbit fields induce a triplet component for the order parameter in the helicity basis, and may produce nodes in the quasiparticle excitation spectrum leading to bulk topological phase transitions of the Lifshitz type. Additionally a fully gapped phase exists, where a crossover from indirect to direct gap occurs, but a topological transition to a gapped phase possessing Majorana fermion edge states does not occur.
This thesis focuses on the analysis of Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) \nto Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) evolution in ultracold superfluid \nFermi gases when the interaction between atoms is varied. The tuning of \nattractive interactions permits the ground state of the system to evolve from a weak \nfermion attraction BCS limit of loosely bound and largely overlapping Cooper pairs \nto a strong fermion attraction limit of tightly bound small bosonic molecules \nwhich undergo BEC. \nThis evolution is accompanied by anomalous behavior of many superfluid \nproperties, and reveals several quantum phase transitions. \nThis thesis has two parts: \nIn the first part, I analyze zero and nonzero orbital angular momentum \npairing effects, and show that a quantum phase transition occurs for \nnonzero angular momentum pairing, unlike the sss-wave case where the BCS \nto BEC evolution is just a crossover. \nIn the second part, I analyze two-species fermion mixtures with mass and \npopulation imbalance in continuum, trap and lattice models. In contrast with \nthe crossover physics found in the mass and population balanced mixtures, \nI demonstrate the existence of phase transitions between normal and \nsuperfluid phases, as well as phase separation between superfluid (paired) \nand normal (excess) fermions in imbalanced mixtures as a function of scattering \nparameter and mass and population imbalance.
In our recent experiments at MIT, superfluidity has been observed in a strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas. These systems constitute a novel form of matter with model character: One can vary the temperature, density and dimensionality, the number of “spin up” versus “spin down” fermions, and, most remarkably, the interactions can be precisely controlled over an enormous range. This allows to study the crossover of a Bose-Einstein condensate of tightly bound molecules to a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluid of long-range Cooper pairs. Superfluidity in this crossover regime is demonstrated by setting the gas under rotation and observing ordered lattices of quantized vortices [1]. Thanks to its strong interactions, the gas is a high-temperature superfluid: Scaled to the density of electrons in a metal, superfluidity would occur already far above room temperature. A new regime is entered when the number of spin up versus spin down atoms is imbalanced. In this case, not every spin up atom can find a spin down partner. The ground state of such a system has been under debate for over 40 years. We observe the breakdown of superfluidity at a critical imbalance, the Chandrasekhar-Clogston limit [2]. The superfluid gives way to an intriguing, strongly-interacting Fermi gas with unequal spin populations [3, 4].