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Route to Observing Fulde-Ferrell Superfluids via a Dark-State Control of Feshbach Resonances

 

A/Professor Hui Hu

Centre for Quantum and Optical Science, Swinburne University of Technology

 

We propose that the long-sought Fulde-Ferrell superfluidity with nonzero momentum pairing can be realized in ultracold two-component Fermi gases of K-40 or Li-6 atoms, by optically tuning their magnetic Feshbach resonances via the creation of a closed-channel dark state with a Doppler-shifted Stark effect. In this scheme, two counter-propagating optical fields are applied to couple two molecular states in the closed channel to an excited molecular state, leading to a significant violation of Galilean invariance in the dark-state regime and hence to the possibility of Fulde-Ferrell superfluids. We develop a field theoretical formulation for both two-body and many-body problems and predict that the Fulde-Ferrell state has remarkable properties, such as anisotropic single-particle dispersion relation, suppressed superfluid density at zero temperature, anisotropic sound velocity and rotonic collective mode. The latter two features can be experimentally probed using Bragg spectroscopy, providing a smoking gun proof of Fulde-Ferrell superfluidity.

 

 

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