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Inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell superfluidity in spin-orbit-coupled atomic Fermi gases

Xia-Ji Liu and Hui Hu
Phys. Rev. A 87, 051608(R) – Published 28 May 2013

Abstract

Inhomogeneous superfluidity lies at the heart of many intriguing phenomena in quantum physics. It is believed to play a central role in unconventional organic or heavy-fermion superconductors, chiral quark matter, and neutron star glitches. However, so far even the simplest form of inhomogeneous superfluidity, the Fulde-Ferrell (FF) pairing state with a single center-of-mass momentum, is not conclusively observed due to the intrinsic complexibility of any realistic Fermi systems in nature. Here we theoretically predict that the controlled setting of ultracold fermionic atoms with synthetic spin-orbit coupling induced by a two-photon Raman process, demonstrated recently in cold-atom laboratories, provides a promising route to realize the long-sought FF superfluidity. At experimentally accessible low temperatures, the FF superfluid state dominates the phase diagram, in sharp contrast to the conventional case without spin-orbit coupling. We show that the finite center-of-mass momentum carried by Cooper pairs is directly measurable via momentum-resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy. Our work opens the way to direct observation and characterization of inhomogeneous superfluidity.

  • Received 9 January 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.87.051608

©2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Xia-Ji Liu* and Hui Hu

  • ARC Centres of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics and Centre for Atom Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne 3122, Australia

  • *xiajiliu@swin.edu.au

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Issue

Vol. 87, Iss. 5 — May 2013

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