Imbalanced Fermi Gases Research Articles

Ground states of atomic Fermi gases in a two-dimensional optical lattice with and without population imbalance

We study the ground state phase diagram of population balanced and imbalanced ultracold atomic Fermi gases with a short range attractive interaction throughout the crossover from BCS to Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), in a two-dimensional optical lattice (2DOL) comprised of two lattice and one continuum dimensions. We find that the mixing of lattice and continuum dimensions, together with population imbalance, has an extraordinary effect on pairing and the superfluidity of atomic Fermi gases. In the balanced case, the superfluid ground state prevails the majority of the phase space. However, for relatively small lattice hopping integral $t$ and large lattice constant $d$, a pair density wave (PDW) emerges unexpectedly at intermediate coupling strength, and the nature of the in-plane and overall pairing changes from particle-like to hole-like in the BCS and unitary regimes, associated with an abnormal increase in the Fermi volume with the pairing strength. In the imbalanced case, the stable polarized superfluid phase shrinks to only a small portion of the entire phase space spanned by $t$, $d$, imbalance $p$ and interaction strength $U$, mainly in the bosonic regime of low $p$, moderately strong pairing, and relatively large $t$ and small $d$. Due to the Pauli exclusion between paired and excessive fermions within the confined momentum space, a PDW phase emerges and the overall pairing evolves from particle-like into hole-like, as the pairing strength grows stronger in the BEC regime. In both cases, the ground state property is largely governed by the Fermi surface topology. These findings are very different from the cases of pure 3D continuum, 3D lattice or 1DOL.

The Gor'kov and Melik‐Barkhudarov Correction to an Imbalanced Fermi Gas in the Presence of Impurities

AbstractThe effects of induced interactions are calculated in both clean and dirty situations, for balanced and imbalanced Fermi gases. The effects of nonmagnetic impurities on the induced interactions corrections to the transition temperature in the case of a balanced gas, and to the tricritical point in the case of an imbalanced Fermi gas at unitarity are investigated. It is found that impurities act in detriment of the induced interactions, or particle–hole fluctuations, for the transition temperature and the tricritical point. For large impurity parameter, the particle–hole fluctuations are strongly suppressed. The Chandrasekhar–Clogston limit of an imbalanced Fermi gas at unitarity considering the effects of the induced interactions, both in the pure and impurity regimes have also been found.

Radial Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov-like state in a population-imbalanced Fermi gas

The possibility of a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state in a population imbalanced Fermi gas with a vortex is proposed. Employing the Bogoliubov-de-Gennes formalism we self-consistently determine the superfluid order parameter and the particle number density in the presence of a vortex. We find that as increasing population imbalance, the superfluid order parameter spatially oscillates around the vortex core in the radial direction, indicating that the FFLO state becomes stable. We find that the radial FFLO states cover a wide region of the phase diagram in the weak-coupling regime at $T=0$ in contrast to the conventional case without a vortex. We show that this inhomogeneous superfluidity can be detected as peak structures of the local polarization rate associated with the node structure of the superfluid order parameter. Since the vortex in the 3D Fermi gas with population imbalance has been already realized in experiments, our proposal is a promising candidate of the FFLO state in cold atom physics.

The Gor'kov and Melik‐Barkhudarov Correction to the Mean‐Field Critical Field Transition to Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov States

AbstractThe Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states, characterized by Cooper pairs condensed at finite‐momentum are, at the same time, exotic and elusive. It is partially due to the fact that the FFLO states allow superconductivity to survive even in strong magnetic fields at the mean‐field level. The effects of induced interactions at zero temperature are calculated in both clean and dirty cases, and it is found that the critical field at which the quantum phase transition to an FFLO state occurs at the mean‐field level is strongly suppressed in imbalanced Fermi gases. This strongly shrinks the phase space region where the FFLO state is unstable and more exotic ground state is to be found. In the presence of high level impurities, this shrinkage may destroy the FFLO state completely.

Unusual Destruction and Enhancement of Superfluidity of Atomic Fermi Gases by Population Imbalance in a One-Dimensional Optical Lattice**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11774309 and 11674283) and the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province of China (Grant No. LZ13A040001).

We study the superfluid behavior of a population imbalanced ultracold atomic Fermi gases with a short range attractive interaction in a one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice, using a pairing fluctuation theory. We show that, besides widespread pseudogap phenomena and intermediate temperature superfluidity, the superfluid phase is readily destroyed except in a limited region of the parameter space. We find a new mechanism for pair hopping, assisted by the excessive majority fermions, in the presence of continuum-lattice mixing, which leads to an unusual constant Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) asymptote for Tc that is independent of pairing strength. In result, on the BEC side of unitarity, superfluidity, when it exists, may be strongly enhanced by population imbalance.

Superfluid-normal quantum phase transitions in an imbalanced Fermi gas

We investigate the superfluid-to-normal zero temperature quantum phase transitions of asymmetric two-component Fermi gases as a function of the chemical potential imbalance h. The calculations are performed for homogeneous and trapped imbalanced systems. We concentrate at unitarity, characterized by a divergent interaction parameter kF a, where most of the current experiments are realized. For homogeneous systems, we determine the critical chemical potential imbalance hc at which possible phase transitions occur. In the case of trapped gases, we show how hc can be consistently determined from experimental observations.

Application of the renormalized random-phase approximation to polarized Fermi gases

We consider a spin imbalanced Fermi gas at zero temperature in the normal phase on the BCS side of the BCS-BEC crossover and around unitarity. We compute the critical polarization for pairing, the correlated occupation numbers and the contact in an extension of particle-particle RPA (also called non self-consistent \textit{T}-matrix approach or ladder approximation). The so-called renormalized RPA consists in computing the \textit{T} matrix with self-consistently determined occupation numbers. The occupation numbers are determined either by keeping the self-energy only to first order or by resumming the Dyson equation. In this way, the result for the critical polarization, strongly overestimated in standard RPA, is clearly improved. We also discuss some problems of this approach.

Two-dimensional imbalanced Fermi gas in antiparallel magnetic fields

We study a two-dimensional Fermi gas with an attractive interaction subjected to synthetic magnetic fields, which are assumed to be mutually antiparallel for two different spin components with population imbalance. By employing the mean-field approximation, we show that the Fulde-Ferrell state is energetically favored over the Larkin-Ovchinnikov state in the weak-coupling limit. We then elucidate the zero-temperature phase diagram in the space of attraction and two chemical potentials analytically at weak coupling as well as numerically beyond it. Rich structures consisting of quantum Hall insulator, unpolarized superfluid, and Fulde-Ferrell phases separated by various second-order and first-order quantum phase transitions are found.

Fermi-Bose Mixtures and BCS-BEC Crossover in High-Tc Superconductors

In this review article we consider theoretically and give experimental support to the models of the Fermi-Bose mixtures and the BCS-BEC (Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer–Bose Einstein) crossover compared with the strong-coupling approach, which can serve as the cornerstones on the way from high-temperature to room-temperature superconductivity in pressurized metallic hydrides. We discuss some key theoretical ideas and mechanisms proposed for unconventional superconductors (cuprates, pnictides, chalcogenides, bismuthates, diborides, heavy-fermions, organics, bilayer graphene, twisted graphene, oxide hetero-structures), superfluids and balanced or imbalanced ultracold Fermi gases in magnetic traps. We build a bridge between unconventional superconductors and recently discovered pressurized hydrides superconductors H3S and LaH10 with the critical temperature close to room temperature. We discuss systems with a line of nodal Dirac points close to the Fermi surface and superconducting shape resonances, and hyperbolic superconducting networks which are very important for the development of novel topological superconductors, for the energetics, for the applications in nano-electronics and quantum computations.

Collective modes of an imbalanced unitary Fermi gas

We study theoretically the collective mode spectrum of a strongly imbalanced two-component unitary Fermi gas in a cigar-shaped trap, where the minority species forms a gas of polarons. We describe the collective breathing mode of the gas in terms of the Fermi liquid kinetic equation taking collisions into account using the method of moments. Our results for the frequency and damping of the longitudinal in-phase breathing mode are in good quantitative agreement with an experiment by Nascimb\`ene et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 170402 (2009)] and interpolate between a hydrodynamic and a collisionless regime as the polarization is increased. A separate out-of phase breathing mode, which for a collisionless gas is sensitive to the effective mass of the polaron, however, is strongly damped at finite temperature, whereas the experiment observes a well-defined oscillation.

Density and spin modes in imbalanced normal Fermi gases from collisionless to hydrodynamic regime

We study the mass- and population-imbalance effect on density (in-phase) and spin (out-of-phase) collective modes in a two-component normal Fermi gas. By calculating the eigenmodes of the linearized Boltzmann equation as well as the density/spin dynamic structure factor, we show that mass- and population-imbalance effects offer a variety of collective mode crossover behaviors from collisionless to hydrodynamic regimes. The mass-imbalance effect shifts the crossover regime to the higher-temperature, and a significant peak of the spin dynamic structure factor emerges only in the collisionless regime. This is in contrast to the case of mass- and population-balanced normal Fermi gases, where the spin dynamic response is always absent. Although the population-imbalance effect does not shift the crossover regime, the spin dynamic structure factor survives both in the collisionless and hydrodynamic regimes.

Surmounting the sign problem in nonrelativistic calculations: A case study with mass-imbalanced fermions

The calculation of the ground state and thermodynamics of mass-imbalanced Fermi systems is a challenging many-body problem. Even in one spatial dimension, analytic solutions are limited to special configurations and numerical progress with standard Monte Carlo approaches is hindered by the sign problem. The focus of the present work is on the further development of methods to study imbalanced systems in a fully non-perturbative fashion. We report our calculations of the ground-state energy of mass-imbalanced fermions using two different approaches which are also very popular in the context of the theory of the strong interaction (Quantum Chromodynamics, QCD): (a) the hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm with imaginary mass imbalance, followed by an analytic continuation to the real axis; and (b) the Complex Langevin algorithm. We cover a range of on-site interaction strengths that includes strongly attractive as well as strongly repulsive cases which we verify with non-perturbative renormalization group methods and perturbation theory. Our findings indicate that, for strong repulsive couplings, the energy starts to flatten out, implying interesting consequences for short-range and high-frequency correlation functions. Overall, our results clearly indicate that the Complex Langevin approach is very versatile and works very well for imbalanced Fermi gases with both attractive and repulsive interactions.

Exotic superfluidity and pairing phenomena in atomic Fermi gases in mixed dimensions

Atomic Fermi gases have been an ideal platform for simulating conventional and engineering exotic physical systems owing to their multiple tunable control parameters. Here we investigate the effects of mixed dimensionality on the superfluid and pairing phenomena of a two-component ultracold atomic Fermi gas with a short-range pairing interaction, while one component is confined on a one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice whereas the other is in a homogeneous 3D continuum. We study the phase diagram and the pseudogap phenomena throughout the entire BCS-BEC crossover, using a pairing fluctuation theory. We find that the effective dimensionality of the non-interacting lattice component can evolve from quasi-3D to quasi-1D, leading to strong Fermi surface mismatch. Upon pairing, the system becomes effectively quasi-two dimensional in the BEC regime. The behavior of Tc bears similarity to that of a regular 3D population imbalanced Fermi gas, but with a more drastic departure from the regular 3D balanced case, featuring both intermediate temperature superfluidity and possible pair density wave ground state. Unlike a simple 1D optical lattice case, Tc in the mixed dimensions has a constant BEC asymptote.

Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov pairing states between s- and p-orbital fermions

We study the pairing states in a largely imbalanced two-component Fermi gas loaded in an anisotropic two-dimensional optical lattice, where the spin-up and spin-down fermions are filled to the s- and px-orbital bands, respectively. We show that owing to the relative inversion of the band structures of the s and px orbitals, the system favors pairing between two fermions on the same side of the Brillouin zone, leading to a large stable regime for states with a finite center-of-mass momentum, i.e., the Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state. In particular, when two Fermi surfaces are close in momentum space, a nesting effect stabilizes a special type of π-FFLO phase with a spatial modulation of π along the easily tunneled x direction. We map out the zero-temperature phase diagrams within the mean-field approach for various aspect ratios within the two-dimensional plane and calculate the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless (BKT) transition temperatures TBKT for different phases.

Larkin-Ovchinnikov superfluidity in a two-dimensional imbalanced atomic Fermi gas

We present an extensive study of two-dimensional Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) superfluidity in a spin-imbalanced two-component atomic Fermi gas. In the context of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin- Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase, we explore a wide and generic class of pairing gap functions with ex- plicit spatial dependency. The mean-field theory of such phases is applied through the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations in which the pairing gap can be determined self-consistently. In order to systemat- ically explore the configuration space we consider both the canonical and grand canonical ensembles where we control the polarization or chemical potentials of the system, respectively. The mean-field calculations enable us to understand the nature of the phase transitions in the fully paired Bardeen- Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) state, exotic LO phase, and partially polarized free Fermi gas. The order of the phase transitions has been examined and in particular we find a weak first-order phase transition between the exotic inhomogeneous LO phase and the BCS phase. In comparison to the three-dimensional case, where the phase diagram is dominated by a generic separation phase, we predict a broader parameter space for the spatially inhomogeneous LO phase. By computing the superfluid density of the LO phase at different polarization, we show how the superfluidity of the system is suppressed with increasing spin polarization.

Anomalous pseudogap in population imbalanced Fermi superfluids

In a Fermi superfluid increasing population imbalance leads initially to reduction of the transition temperature, then the appearance of modulated Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states, and finally the suppression of pairing itself. For interaction strength such that the `balanced' system has a normal state pseudogap, increasing imbalance reveals anomalous spectral behavior. At a fixed weak imbalance (small polarization) the stable homogeneous superfluid occurs only above a certain temperature. The density of states has a minimum at the Fermi level, then a weak peak {\it within the gap}, and then the large, gap edge, coherence features. On heating, this non monotonic energy dependence changes to a more conventional fluctuation driven pseudogap, with a monotonic energy dependence. At large imbalance the ground state is FFLO and `pseudogapped' due to the modulated order. It changes to a gapless normal state on heating, and then shows a pseudogap again at a higher temperature. These weak imbalance and strong imbalance features both involve effects well beyond mean field theory. We establish them by using a Monte Carlo technique on large lattices, motivate the results in terms of the pairing field distribution, and compare them to spectroscopic results in the imbalanced unitary Fermi gas.

Momentum space imaging of the FFLO state

In a magnetic field superconductors (SC) with small orbital effect exhibit the Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase above the Pauli limiting field. It is characterized by Cooper pairs with finite center of mass momentum and is stabilized by the gain in Zeeman energy of depaired electrons in the imbalanced Fermi gas. The ground state is a coherent superposition of paired and depaired states. This concept, although central to the FFLO state lacks a direct experimental confirmation. We propose that STM quasiparticle interference (QPI) can give a direct momentum space image of the depaired states in the FFLO wave function. For a proof of principle we investigate a 2D single orbital tight binding model with a SC s-wave order parameter. Using the equilibrium values of pair momentum and SC gap we calculate the spectral function of quasiparticles and associated QPI spectrum as function of magnetic field. We show that the characteristic depaired Fermi surface parts appear as a fingerprint in the QPI spectrum of the FFLO phase and we demonstrate its evolution with field strength. Its observation in STM experiments would constitute a direct proof for FFLO ground state wave function.

Population-imbalanced lattice fermions near the BCS-BEC crossover: Thermal physics of the breached pair and Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov phases

We study s-wave superconductivity in the two dimensional attractive Hubbard model in an applied magnetic field, assume the extreme Pauli limit, and examine the role of spatial fluctuations in the coupling regime corresponding to BCS-BEC crossover. We use a decomposition of the interaction in terms of an auxiliary pairing field, retain the static mode, and sample the pairing field via Monte Carlo. The method requires iterative solution of the Bogoliubov-de-Gennes (BdG) equations for amplitude and phase fluctuating configurations of the pairing field. We establish the full thermal phase diagram of this strong coupling problem, revealing $T_c$ scales an order of magnitude below the mean field estimate, highlight the spontaneous inhomogeneity in the field induced magnetization, and discover a strong non monotonicity in the temperature dependence of the low energy density of states. We compare our results to the experimental phase diagram of the imbalanced Fermi gas at unitarity. This paper focuses on the magnetized but homogeneous (breached pair) superconducting state, a companion paper deals with the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) regime.

BCS–BEC crossover of spin imbalanced Fermi gases with Rashba spin–orbit coupling

We study the BCS–Bose Einstein Condensation (BEC) crossover of a three-dimensional spin polarized Fermi gas with Rashba spin–orbital coupling (SOC). At finite temperature, the effects of non-condensed pairs due to the thermal excitation are considered based on the G0G pair fluctuation theory. These fluctuations generate a pseudogap even persistent above Tc. Within this framework, the Sarma state or the spin polarized superfluid state and polarized pseudogap state are explored in detail. The resulting Tc curves show that the enhancement of pairing due to the SOC roughly cancels out the suppression of pairing due to the population imbalance. Thus we observed that in a large portion of the parameter space, the polarized superfluid state are stabilized by the SOC.

Induced p-wave superfluidity in imbalanced Fermi gases in a synthetic gauge field

We study the pairing formation and the appearance of induced spin-triplet p-wave superfluidity in dilute three-dimensional imbalanced Fermi gases in the presence of a uniform non-Abelian gauge field. This gauge field generates a synthetic Rashba-type spin–orbit interaction which has remarkable consequences in the induced p-wave pairing gaps. Without the synthetic gauge field, the p-wave pairing occurs in one of the components due to the induced (second-order) interaction via an exchange of density fluctuations in the other component. We show that this p-wave superfluid gap induced by density fluctuations is greatly enhanced due to the Rashba-type spin–orbit coupling.