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Physical Review A

Ultracold Fermi gas in a single-mode cavity: Cavity-mediated interaction and BCS-BEC evolution

Xiaoyong Guo, Zhongzhou Ren, Guangjie Guo, Jie Peng

Published Nov 7, 2012• 14 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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 $s$-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.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.053605

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Foundations of Quantum Mechanics in the Light of New Technology•Jun 1, 2009•0 citations
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.
Ultracold atomic gases are a powerful tool to experimentally study strongly correlated quantum many-body systems. In particular, ultracold Fermi gases with tunable interactions have allowed to realize the famous BEC-BCS crossover from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of molecules to a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid of weakly bound Cooper pairs. However, large parts of the excitation spectrum of fermionic superfluids in the BEC-BCS crossover are still unexplored. In this work, we use Bragg spectroscopy to measure the full momentum-resolved low-energy excitation spectrum of strongly interacting ultracold Fermi gases. This enables us to directly observe the smooth transformation from a bosonic to a fermionic superfluid that takes place in the BEC-BCS crossover. We also use our spectra to determine the evolution of the superfluid gap and find excellent agreement with previous experiments and self-consistent T-matrix calculations both in the BEC and crossover regime. However, toward the BCS regime a calculation that includes the effects of particle-hole correlations shows better agreement with our data.
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.
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.
We analyze a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) mixed with a superfluid two-component Fermi gas in the whole BCS-BEC crossover. Using a quasiparticle random-phase approximation combined with Beliaev theory to describe the Fermi superfluid and the BEC, respectively, we show that the single-particle and collective excitations of the Fermi gas give rise to an induced interaction between the bosons, which varies strongly with momentum and frequency. It diverges at the sound mode of the Fermi superfluid, resulting in a sharp avoided crossing feature and a corresponding sign change of the interaction energy shift in the excitation spectrum of the BEC. In addition, the excitation of quasiparticles in the Fermi superfluid leads to damping of the excitations in the BEC. Besides studying induced interactions themselves, we can use these prominent effects to systematically probe the strongly interacting Fermi gas.
We present a theory of a two-component atomic Fermi gas with tunable attractive contact interactions on a spherical shell going through the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS)--Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) crossover, inspired by the realizations of spherical bubble traps for ultracold atoms in microgravity. The derivation follows the BCS-Leggett theory to obtain the gap and number equations. The BCS-BEC crossover can be induced by tuning the interaction, and the properly normalized gap and chemical potential exhibit universal behavior regardless of the planar or spherical geometry. Nevertheless, the spherical-shell geometry introduces another way of inducing the crossover by the curvature. The curvature-induced BCS-BEC crossover is made possible by fixing the particle number and interaction strength while shrinking the sphere, causing a reduction to the ratio of the pairing and kinetic energies and pushing the system toward the BCS limit. The saturation of the superfluid density further confirms that the ground state is a Fermi superfluid.
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].