Superfluidity and collective modes in Rashba spin–orbit coupled Fermi gases

We present a theoretical study of the superfluidity and the corresponding collective modes in two-component atomic Fermi gases with s$s$-wave attraction and synthetic Rashba spin–orbit coupling. The general effective action for the collective modes is derived from the functional path integral formalism. By tuning the spin–orbit coupling from weak to strong, the system undergoes a crossover from an ordinary BCS/BEC superfluid to a Bose–Einstein condensate of rashbons. We show that the properties of the superfluid density and the Anderson–Bogoliubov mode manifest this crossover. At large spin–orbit coupling, the superfluid density and the sound velocity become independent of the strength of the s$s$-wave attraction. The two-body interaction among the rashbons is also determined. When a Zeeman field is turned on, the system undergoes quantum phase transitions to some exotic superfluid phases which are topologically nontrivial. For the two-dimensional system, the nonanalyticities of the thermodynamic functions and the sound velocity across the phase transition are related to the bulk gapless fermionic excitation which causes infrared singularities. The superfluid density and the sound velocity behave nonmonotonically: they are suppressed by the Zeeman field in the normal superfluid phase, but get enhanced in the topological superfluid phase. The three-dimensional system is also studied.     

Spatiotemporal Bloch states of a spin–orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate in an optical lattice

We study the spatiotemporal Bloch states of a high-frequency driven two-component Bose–Einstein condensate(BEC)with spin–orbit coupling(SOC) in an optical lattice. By adopting the rotating-wave approximation(RWA) and applying an exact trial-solution to the corresponding quasistationary system, we establish a different method for tuning SOC via external field such that the existence conditions of the exact particular solutions are fitted. Several novel features related to the exact states are demonstrated; for example, SOC leads to spin–motion entanglement for the spatiotemporal Bloch states, SOC increases the population imbalance of the two-component BEC, and SOC can be applied to manipulate the stable atomic flow which is conducive to control quantum transport of the BEC for different application purposes.     

Energetic and dynamical instability of spin–orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate in a deep optical lattice

We investigate the energetic and dynamical instability of spin–orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate in a deep optical lattice via a tight-binding model. The stability phase diagram is completely revealed in full parameter space, while the dependence of superfluidity on the dispersion relation is illustrated explicitly. In the absence of spin–orbit coupling, the superfluidity only exists in the center of the Brillouin zone. However, the combination of spin–orbit coupling, Zeeman field, nonlinearity and optical lattice potential can modify the dispersion relation of the system, and change the position of Brillouin zone for generating the superfluidity. Thus, the superfluidity can appear in either the center or the other position of the Brillouin zone. Namely, in the center of the Brillouin zone, the system is either superfluid or Landau unstable, which depends on the momentum of the lowest energy. Therefore, the superfluidity can occur at optional position of the Brillouin zone by elaborating spin–orbit coupling, Zeeman splitting, nonlinearity and optical lattice potential. For the linear case, the system is always dynamically stable, however, the nonlinearity can induce the dynamical instability, and also expand the superfluid region. These predicted results can provide a theoretical evidence for exploring the superfluidity of the system experimentally.     

Dynamics of bright soliton in a spin–orbit coupled spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensate

We have investigated the dynamics of bright solitons in a spin–orbit coupled spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensate analytically and numerically. By using the hyperbolic sine function as the trial function to describe a plane wave bright soliton with a single finite momentum, we have derived the motion equations of soliton's spin and center of mass, and obtained its exact analytical solutions. Our results show that the spin–orbit coupling couples the soliton's spin with its center-of-mass motion, the spin oscillations induced by the exchange of atoms between components result in the periodical oscillation of center-of-mass, and the motion of center of mass of soliton can be viewed as a superposition of periodical and linear motions. Our analytical results have also been confirmed by the direct numerical simulations of Gross–Pitaevskii equations.     

Influences of spin–orbit interaction on quantum speed limit and entanglement of spin qubits in coupled quantum dots

Quantum speed limit and entanglement of a two-spin Heisenberg XYZ system in an inhomogeneous external magnetic field are investigated. The physical system studied is the excess electron spin in two adjacent quantum dots. The influences of magnetic field inhomogeneity as well as spin–orbit coupling are studied. Moreover, the spin interaction with surrounding magnetic environment is investigated as a non-Markovian process. The spin–orbit interaction provides two important features: the formation of entanglement when two qubits are initially in a separated state and the degradation and rebirth of the entanglement.     

Electronic states and spectroscopic properties of MgH in absence and presence of spin–orbit coupling − a configuration interaction study

Electronic spectrum of astrophysically important molecule magnesium hydride (MgH) has been studied using configuration interaction methodology excluding and including spin–orbit coupling. Potential energy curves of several spin-independent (Λ?S) electronic states have been constructed and spectroscopic constants of low-lying bound Λ?S states within 8.2 eV of term energy are reported in the first stage of calculations. The X²Σ⁺ is identified as the ground state in the Λ?S level. In the subsequent stage, the spin–orbit interaction has been incorporated and its effects on the potential energy curves and spectroscopic features of different electronic states of the species have been investigated. The X²Σ⁺_1/2 is identified as the spin–orbit (Ω) ground state of the species. Transition moments of several dipole-allowed transitions are computed in both the stages and radiative lifetimes of the corresponding excited states are computed. Electric dipole moments (µ) for a number of low-lying bound Λ?S states as well as several low-lying Ω-states are also calculated in the present study.     

Influence of the spin–orbit interaction in the impurity-band states of n-doped semiconductors

We study numerically the effects of an extrinsic spin–orbit interaction on the model of electrons in n-doped semiconductors of Matsubara and Toyozawa (MT). We focus on the analysis of the density of states (DOS) and the inverse participation ratio (IPR) of the spin–orbit perturbed states in the MT set of energy eigenstates in order to characterize the eigenstates with respect to their extended or localized nature. The finite sizes that we are able to consider necessitate an enhancement of the spin–orbit coupling strength in order to obtain a meaningful perturbation. The IPR and DOS are then studied as a function of the enhancement parameter.     

Characteristics of persistent spin current components in a quasi-periodic Fibonacci ring with spin–orbit interactions: Prediction of spin–orbit coupling and on-site energy

In the present work we investigate the behavior of all three components of persistent spin current in a quasi-periodic Fibonacci ring subjected to Rashba and Dresselhaus spin–orbit interactions. Analogous to persistent charge current in a conducting ring where electrons gain a Berry phase in presence of magnetic flux, spin Berry phase is associated during the motion of electrons in presence of a spin–orbit field which is responsible for the generation of spin current. The interplay between two spin–orbit fields along with quasi-periodic Fibonacci sequence on persistent spin current is described elaborately, and from our analysis, we can estimate the strength of any one of two spin–orbit couplings together with on-site energy, provided the other is known.     

Spin excitation spectra of spin–orbit coupled bosons in an optical lattice

Spin-wave excitation plays important roles in the investigation of the magnetic phases. In this paper, we study the spin-wave excitation spectra of two-component Bose gases with spin–orbit coupling in a deep square optical lattice using the spin-wave theory. We find that, while the excitation spectrum of the vortex crystal phase is gapless with a linear dispersion in the vicinity of the minimum point, the spectra of the commensurate spiral spin phase and the skyrmion crystal phase are gapped. Significantly, the spin fluctuations strongly destabilize the classical ground state of the skyrmion phase with the appearance of an imaginary part in the eigenfrequencies of spin excitations. Such features of the spin excitation spectra provide further insights into the exotic spin phases.     

Conductance dips and spin precession in a nonuniform waveguide with spin–orbit coupling

An infinite waveguide with a nonuniformity, a segment of finite length with spin–orbit coupling, is considered in the case when the Rashba and Dresselhaus parameters are identical. Analytical expressions have been derived in the single-mode approximation for the conductance of the system for an arbitrary initial spin state. Based on numerical calculations with several size quantization modes, we have detected and described the conductance dips arising when the waves are localized in the nonuniformity due to the formation of an effective potential well in it. We show that allowance for the evanescent modes under carrier spin precession in an effective magnetic field does not lead to a change in the direction of the average spin vector at the output of the system.     

Topological superfluid in a two-dimensional polarized Fermi gas with spin-orbit coupling and adiabatic rotation

We study the properties of superfluid in a two-dimensional(2 D) polarized Fermi gas with spin–orbit coupling and adiabatic rotation which are trapped in a harmonic potential. Due to the competition between polarization, spin–orbit coupling, and adiabatic rotation, the Fermi gas exhibits many intriguing phenomena. By using the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer(BCS) mean-field method with local density approximation, we investigate the dependence of order parameter solution on the spin–orbit coupling strength and the rotation velocity. The energy spectra with different rotation velocities are studied in detail. Besides, the conditions for the zero-energy Majorana fermions in topological superfluid phase to be observed are obtained. By investigating distributions of number density, we find that the rotation has opposite effect on the distribution of number density with different spins, which leads to the enhancement of the polarization of Fermi gas. Here,we focus on the region of BCS pairing and ignore the Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov state.     

Spin-orbit coupling adjusting topological superfluid of mass-imbalanced Fermi gas

Topological superfluid state is different from the normal superfluid one due to the excitation energy gap on the boundary. How to obtain the topological superfluid state by using spin-orbit coupling to control the s-waves paired mass-imbalanced Fermi gas is a recent novel topic. In this paper, we study the topological superfluid phase diagram of two-dimensional mass-imbalanced Fermi gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling at zero temperature. We find that due to the competition among mass imbalance, pairing interaction and spin-orbit coupling, there is a double-well structure in the thermodynamic potential, which affects the properties of the ground state of the system. We comprehensively give the phase diagrams of the system on the plane of spin-orbit coupling and chemical potential, and the phase diagrams on the plane of the reduced mass ratio and two-body binding energy. This study not only points out the stable region of topological superfluid state of mass-imbalanced Fermi gas, but also provides a detailed theoretical basis for better observation of topological superfluid state in experiments.     

自旋-轨道耦合作用下双组分量子气体中的动力学结构因子与求和规则

在自旋-轨道耦合作用下,双组分量子气体中密度涨落和自旋涨落的动力学结构因子满足不同形式的求和规则.特别是动力学结构因子的一阶矩一般不具有空间反演对称性.针对两个特定的模型——Raman耦合作用下的无相互作用费米气体与弱相互作用玻色气体,分别计算了在不同参数条件下密度涨落和自旋涨落的动力学结构因子,并讨论了实验上观测其一阶矩偏离空间反演对称所需达到的能谱分辨率.     

Polaron, molecule and pairing in one-dimensional spin-1/2 Fermi gas with an attractive Delta-function interaction

Using solutions of the discrete Bethe ansatz equations, we study in detail the quantum impurity problem of a spin-down fermion immersed into a fully ploarized spin-up Fermi sea with weak attraction. We prove that this impurity fermion in the one-dimensional (1D) fermionic medium behaves like a polaron for weak attraction. However, as the attraction grows, the spin-down fermion binds with one spin-up fermion from the fully-polarized medium to form a tightly bound molecule. Thus it is seen that the system undergos a crossover from a mean field polaron-like nature into a mixture of excess fermions and a bosonic molecule as the attraction changes from weak attraction into strong attraction. This polaron-molecule crossover is universal in 1D many-body systems of interacting fermions. In a thermodynamic limit, we further study the relationship between the Fredholm equations for the 1D spin-1/2 Fermi gas with weakly repulsive and attractive delta-function interactions.     

Anderson localization of a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate in disorder potential

We present numerical results of a one-dimensional spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate expanding in a speckle disorder potential by employing the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Localization properties of a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate in zero-momentum phase, magnetic phase and stripe phase are studied. It is found that the localizing behavior in the zero-momentum phase is similar to the normal Bose-Einstein condensate. Moreover, in both magnetic phase and stripe phase, the localization length changes non-monotonically as the fitting interval increases. In magnetic phases, the Bose-Einstein condensate will experience spin relaxation in disorder potential.     

Non-universal Fermi polaron in quasi two-dimensional quantum gases

We consider an impurity problem in a quasi-two-dimensional Fermi gas, where a spin-down impurity is immersed in a Fermi sea of N spin-up atoms. Using a variational approach and an effective two-channel model, we obtain the energy for a wide range of interaction strength and for various different mass ratios between the impurity and the background fermion in the context of heteronuclear mixture. We demonstrate that in a quasi-two-dimensional Fermi gas there exists a transition of the ground state from polaron in the weakly interacting region to molecule in the strongly interacting region. The critical interaction strength of the polaron-molecule transition is non-universal and depends on the particle density of the background Fermi sea. We also investigate the excited repulsive polaron state, and find similar non-universal behavior.     

Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质

采用改进的线性组合算符和幺正变换的方法研究了Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质,导出了Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的振动频率、有效质量、基态分裂能和相互作用能。数值计算结果表明随Rashba自旋-轨道耦合常数的增加,由于声子作用产生的附加能量能对零磁场时自旋分裂能的影响占有绝对优势。库仑势对束缚极化子的基态能量的影响同时也占有绝对优势。所以,研究Rashba自旋轨道相互作时声子的影响不可忽略。     

Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质

采用改进的线性组合算符和幺正变换的方法研究了Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的性质,导出了Rashba效应影响下量子点中弱耦合束缚极化子的振动频率、有效质量、基态分裂能和相互作用能。数值计算结果表明随Rashba自旋-轨道耦合常数的增加,由于声子作用产生的附加能量能对零磁场时自旋分裂能的影响占有绝对优势。库仑势对束缚极化子的基态能量的影响同时也占有绝对优势。所以,研究Rashba自旋轨道相互作时声子的影响不可忽略。     

Oscillating Casimir force between two slabs in a Fermi sea

The Casimir effect for two parallel slabs immersed in an ideal Fermi sea is investigated at both zero and nonzero temperatures.It is found that the Casimir effect in a Fermi gas is distinctly different from that in an electromagnetic field or a massive Bose gas.In contrast to the familiar result that the Casimir force decreases monotonically with the increase of the separation L between two slabs in an electromagnetic field and a massive Bose gas,the Casimir force in a Fermi gas oscillates as a function of L.The Casimir force can be either attractive or repulsive,depending sensitively on the magnitude of L.In addition,it is found that the amplitude of the Casimir force in a Fermi gas decreases with the increase of the temperature,which also is contrary to the case in a Bose gas,since the bosonic Casimir force increases linearly with the increase of the temperature in the region T相似文献