We investigate the stabilization of topological Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phases, with a specific emphasis on the intraband FFLO phase, in a one-dimensional (1D) Fermi gas subjected to an external magnetic field. This research highlights the crucial role of the interplay between Rashba spin-orbit coupling (RSOC) and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling (DSOC). Employing a Fermi-Hubbard model alongside the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method, we examine the combined effects of RSOC and DSOC on these exotic superfluid phases, taking into account attractive fermionic interactions. Our principal finding reveals that while RSOC primarily stabilizes conventional zero-momentum pairing, DSOC performs a distinct and crucial role in selectively stabilizing the intraband FFLO phase. This stabilization is achieved by enhancing spin polarization within a single helicity band and suppressing interband coherence, thereby facilitating the formation of finite-momentum FFLO pairs within the same band and resulting in the emergence of a topologically nontrivial superfluid. This targeted control of intraband FFLO pairing paves the way for new strategies in the manipulation of superfluid phases in spin-orbit coupled systems and offers essential insights for experimental realizations in ultracold atomic gases, with implications for topological quantum computing and Majorana fermions.
We consider the quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) system realized by an array of weakly coupled parallel one-dimensional ``tubes'' in a two-dimensional lattice which permits free motion of atoms in an axial direction in the presence of a Zeeman field, Rashba type spin-orbit coupling (SOC), and an
s-wave attractive interaction, while the radial motion is tightly confined. We solve the zero-temperature (
T=0) Bogoliubov--de Gennes (BdG) equations for the quasi-1D Fermi gas with the dispersion modified by tunneling between the tubes and show that the
T=0 phase diagram hosts the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase with nonzero center-of-mass momentum Cooper pairs for small values of the SOC while for larger values of the SOC and high Zeeman fields the uniform superfluid phase with zero center-of-mass momentum Cooper pairs has an instability towards the topological uniform superfluid phase with Majorana fermions at the tube ends. Also, we show that tuning the two-dimensional optical lattice strength in this model allows one to explore the crossover behaviors of the phases during the transition between the three-dimensional and 1D systems and in general the FFLO (for small SOC) and the topological uniform superfluid phase (for large SOC) are favored as the system becomes more one dimensional. We also find evidence of the existence of a Zeeman-tuned topological quantum phase transition (TQPT) within the FFLO phase itself and, for large values of the Zeeman field and small SOC, the TQPT gives rise to a topologically distinct FFLO phase.