Superfluid Fermi Gas in a 1D Optical Lattice

We calculate the superfluid transition temperature for a two-component 3D Fermi gas in a 1D tight optical lattice and discuss a dimensional crossover from the 3D to quasi-2D regime. For the geometry of finite size discs in the 1D lattice, we find that even for a large number of atoms per disc the critical effective tunneling rate for a quantum transition to the Mott insulator state can be large compared to the loss rate caused by three-body recombination. This allows the observation of the Mott transition, in contrast to the case of Bose-condensed gases in the same geometry.

Figure 1

Gorkov’s correction versus ${ϵ}_F/4t$. The limiting value $T_c/T_c^0=e^{-1}$ at ${ϵ}_F/4t\gg 1$ is shown by the dotted line.