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Physics

Cooling a Thermal Cloud to a Supersolid

Chinmayee Mishra

Published Jun 7, 2021• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Cooling a Thermal Cloud to a SupersolidWhen a cloud of cold atoms goes through a supersolid phase transition, its coexisting superfluid and crystalline phases do not emerge simultaneously.By Chinmayee Mishra O bserving a supersolid-a state of matter that has both superfluid and solid properties-has been a challenge for decades.The constituent particles of a supersolid form a rigid, ordered structure but can also flow without dissipating energy.This paradoxical behavior was observed in cold-atom experiments only in the last five years [1-5].Researchers typically make cold-atom supersolids starting from superfluid phases, leaving open the question of how supersolidity appears from other phases.Now, a team led by Francesca Ferlaino at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, has shown that when starting from a thermal gas, a supersolid's crystalline and superfluid orders arrive and decay sequentually

DOI
10.1103/physics.14.85

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Cooling a Thermal Cloud to a SupersolidWhen a cloud of cold atoms goes through a supersolid phase transition, its coexisting superfluid and crystalline phases do not emerge simultaneously.By Chinmayee Mishra O bserving a supersolid-a state of matter that has both superfluid and solid properties-has been a challenge for decades.The constituent particles of a supersolid form a rigid, ordered structure but can also flow without dissipating energy.This paradoxical behavior was observed in cold-atom experiments only in the last five years [1-5].Researchers typically make cold-atom supersolids starting from superfluid phases, leaving open the question of how supersolidity appears from other phases.Now, a team led by Francesca Ferlaino at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, has shown that when starting from a thermal gas, a supersolid's crystalline and superfluid orders arrive and decay sequentually
Abstract Supersolid states simultaneously feature properties typically associated with a solid and with a superfluid. Like a solid, they possess crystalline order, manifesting as a periodic modulation of the particle density; but unlike a typical solid, they also have superfluid properties, resulting from coherent particle delocalization across the system. Such states were initially envisioned in the context of bulk solid helium, as a possible answer to the question of whether a solid could have superfluid properties1–5. Although supersolidity has not been observed in solid helium (despite much effort)6, ultracold atomic gases provide an alternative approach, recently enabling the observation and study of supersolids with dipolar atoms7–16. However, unlike the proposed phenomena in helium, these gaseous systems have so far only shown supersolidity along a single direction. Here we demonstrate the extension of supersolid properties into two dimensions by preparing a supersolid quantum gas of dysprosium atoms on both sides of a structural phase transition similar to those occurring in ionic chains17–20, quantum wires21, 22 and theoretically in chains of individual dipolar particles23, 24. This opens the possibility of studying rich excitation properties25–28, including vortex formation29–31, and ground-state phases with varied geometrical structure7, 32 in a highly flexible and controllable system.
In the short time since the first observation of supersolid states of ultracold dipolar atoms, substantial progress has been made in understanding the zero-temperature phase diagram and low-energy excitations of these systems. Less is known, however, about their finite-temperature properties, particularly relevant for supersolids formed by cooling through direct evaporation. Here, we explore this realm by characterizing the evaporative formation and subsequent decay of a dipolar supersolid by combining high-resolution in-trap imaging with time-of-flight observables. As our atomic system cools toward quantum degeneracy, it first undergoes a transition from thermal gas to a crystalline state with the appearance of periodic density modulation. This is followed by a transition to a supersolid state with the emergence of long-range phase coherence. Further, we explore the role of temperature in the development of the modulated state.
A Supersolid DiskResearchers have created a disk-shaped supersolid, an achievement that could provide new routes to exploring previously unseen states of matter.By Katherine Wright L ast year, using ultracold dysprosium atoms, researchers created the first 2D supersolid-a weird quantum material that has the ordered structure of a solid but that can flow like a frictionless fluid.That 2D supersolid resembled a long, thin rhomboid, leaving open the question of whether 2D supersolids could be molded into other geometries.Now, Thomas Bland of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and colleagues give a positive answer to this question by theoretically and experimentally demonstrating a disk-shaped supersolid [1].The team, which includes members of the group behind the earlier demonstration, says that such a 2D supersolid could be used to study quantum vortices, a key feature of supersolids' superfluid behavior.