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Evolution of Fermion Pairing from Three to Two Dimensions

Ariel T. Sommer, Lawrence W. Cheuk, Mark J. H. Ku, Waseem S. Bakr, and Martin W. Zwierlein
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 045302 – Published 23 January 2012
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Abstract

We follow the evolution of fermion pairing in the dimensional crossover from three-dimensional to two-dimensional as a strongly interacting Fermi gas of Li6 atoms becomes confined to a stack of two-dimensional layers formed by a one-dimensional optical lattice. Decreasing the dimensionality leads to the opening of a gap in radio-frequency spectra, even on the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer side of a Feshbach resonance. The measured binding energy of fermion pairs closely follows the theoretical two-body binding energy and, in the two-dimensional limit, the zero-temperature mean-field Bose-Einstein-condensation to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer crossover theory.

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  • Received 13 October 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.045302

© 2012 American Physical Society

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Fermion Pairing in Flatland

Published 23 January 2012

Cold-atom experiments tread into the land of two-dimensional superconductivity.

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Authors & Affiliations

Ariel T. Sommer, Lawrence W. Cheuk, Mark J. H. Ku, Waseem S. Bakr, and Martin W. Zwierlein

  • Department of Physics, MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, and Research Laboratory of Electronics, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

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Issue

Vol. 108, Iss. 4 — 27 January 2012

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