Pairing of fermions with unequal charges in an artificial magnetic field

Randall G. Hulet

Chien-Hua Pao, Shin-Tza Wu, Sungkit Yip

F. Nur Ünal, Mehmet Özgür Oktel

Artificial magnetic fields (AMFs) created for ultracold systems depend sensitively on the internal structure of the atoms. In a mixture, each component experiences a different AMF depending on its internal state. This enables the study of Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer pairing of fermions with unequal effective charges. In this Letter, we investigate the superconducting (SC) transition of a system formed by such pairs as a function of field strength. We consider a homogeneous two-component Fermi gas of unequal effective charges but equal densities with attractive interactions. We find that the phase diagram is altered drastically compared to the usual balanced charge case. First, for some AMFs there is no SC transition and isolated SC phases are formed, reflecting the discrete Landau level (LL) structure. SC phases become reentrant both in AMF and temperature. For extremely high fields where both components are confined to their lowest LLs, the effect of the charge imbalance is suppressed. Charge asymmetry reduces the critical temperature even in the low-field semiclassical regime. We discuss a pair breaking mechanism due to the unequal Lorentz forces acting on the components of the Cooper pairs to identify the underlying physics.

Nur Unal, Mehmet Özgür Oktel

Artificial magnetic fields (AMFs) created for ultracold systems depend sensitively on the internal structure of the atoms. In a mixture, each component experiences a different AMF depending on its internal state. This enables the study of Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer pairing of fermions with unequal effective charges. In this Letter, we investigate the superconducting (SC) transition of a system formed by such pairs as a function of field strength. We consider a homogeneous two-component Fermi gas of unequal effective charges but equal densities with attractive interactions. We find that the phase diagram is altered drastically compared to the usual balanced charge case. First, for some AMFs there is no SC transition and isolated SC phases are formed, reflecting the discrete Landau level (LL) structure. SC phases become reentrant both in AMF and temperature. For extremely high fields where both components are confined to their lowest LLs, the effect of the charge imbalance is suppressed. Charge asymmetry reduces the critical temperature even in the low-field semiclassical regime. We discuss a pair breaking mechanism due to the unequal Lorentz forces acting on the components of the Cooper pairs to identify the underlying physics.

S. Mazumdar

A. Levent Subaşı, Nader Ghazanfari

Atoms with different internal states can exhibit different responses to an artificial magnetic field. An atomic gas mixture of two different components can therefore be interpreted as a mixture of two atomic gases carrying different synthetic charges. We consider the superfluid state of such unequally charged Fermi gases coupled to a magnetic field via the orbital effect and trapped in a torus geometry. The orbital coupling to the magnetic field favors an inhomogeneous superfluid state with optimum finite-center-of-mass-momentum pairing. The resulting population-balanced orbital Fulde-Ferrell (FF) state is robust against the magnetic field and does not undergo pair breaking, unlike the conventional BCS and Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov-type pairing states under the Zeeman effect. We contrast the homogeneous and inhomogeneous cases, emphasizing the advantages of the unequally charged systems, and present their momentum distributions. We conclude that an unequally charged atomic Fermi gas system orbitally coupled to an artificial magnetic field provides an ideal candidate for experimental realization of the FF state.