Competing superfluid orders in spin-orbit-coupled fermionic cold-atom optical lattices

Yong Xu, Chunlei Qu, Ming Gong, and Chuanwei Zhang
Phys. Rev. A 89, 013607 – Published 10 January 2014

Abstract

The Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase, a superconducting state with nonzero total momentum Cooper pairs in a large magnetic field, was first predicted about 50 years ago and has since become an important concept in many branches of physics. Despite an intensive search in various materials, unambiguous experimental evidence for the FFLO phase is still lacking in experiments. In this paper we show that both Fulde-Ferrell (FF) (a uniform order parameter with a plane-wave phase) and Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) phases (a spatially varying order parameter amplitude) can be observed using fermionic cold atoms in spin-orbit-coupled optical lattices. The increasing spin-orbit coupling enhances the FF phase over the LO phase. The coexistence of superfluid and magnetic orders is also found in the normal BCS phase. The pairing mechanism for different phases is understood by visualizing superfluid pairing densities in different spin-orbit bands. The possibility of observing similar physics using spin-orbit-coupled superconducting ultrathin films is also discussed.

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  • Received 24 June 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.89.013607

©2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Yong Xu1, Chunlei Qu1, Ming Gong1,2, and Chuanwei Zhang1,*

  • 1Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75080, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

  • *Corresponding author: chuanwei.zhang@utdallas.edu

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Vol. 89, Iss. 1 — January 2014

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