No Arabic abstract
We discuss the emergence of p-wave superfluidity of identical atomic fermions in a two-dimensional optical lattice. The optical lattice potential manifests itself in an interplay between an increase in the density of states on the Fermi surface and the modification of the fermion-fermion interaction (scattering) amplitude. The density of states is enhanced due to an increase of the effective mass of atoms. In deep lattices the scattering amplitude is strongly reduced compared to free space due to a small overlap of wavefunctions of fermion sitting in the neighboring lattice sites, which suppresses the p-wave superfluidity. However, for moderate lattice depths the enhancement of the density of states can compensate the decrease of the scattering amplitude. Moreover, the lattice setup significantly reduces inelastic collisional losses, which allows one to get closer to a p-wave Feshbach resonance. This opens possibilities to obtain the topological $p_x+ip_y$ superfluid phase, especially in the recently proposed subwavelength lattices. We demonstrate this for the two-dimensional version of the Kronig-Penney model allowing a transparent physical analysis.
Attractive interaction between spinless fermions in a two-dimensional lattice drives the formation of a topological superfluid. But the topological phase is dynamically unstable towards phase separation when the system has a high density of states and large interaction strength. This limits the critical temperature to an experimentally challenging regime where, for example, even ultracold atoms and molecules in optical lattices would struggle to realize the topological superfluid. We propose that the introduction of a weaker longer-range repulsion, in addition to the short-range attraction between lattice fermions, will suppress the phase separation instability. Taking the honeycomb lattice as an example, we show that our proposal significantly enlarges the stable portion of the topological superfluid phase and increases the critical temperature by an order of magnitude. Our work opens a route to enhance the stability of topological superfluids by engineering inter-particle interactions.
We calculate the phase diagram of identical fermions in a 2-dimensional (2D) lattice immersed in a 3D Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The fermions exchange density fluctuations in the BEC, which gives rise to an attractive induced interaction. The resulting zero temperature phase diagram exhibits topological $p_x+ip_y$ superfluid phases as well as a phase separation region. We show how to use the flexibility of the Bose-Fermi mixture to tune the induced interaction, so that it maximises the pairing between nearest neighbour sites, whereas phase separation originating from long range interactions is suppressed. Finally, we calculate the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) critical temperature of the topological superfluid in the lattice and discuss experimental realisations.
We study attractively interacting fermions on a square lattice with dispersion relations exhibiting strong spin-dependent anisotropy. The resulting Fermi surface mismatch suppresses the s-wave BCS-type instability, clearing the way for unconventional types of order. Unbiased sampling of the Feynman diagrammatic series using Diagrammatic Monte Carlo methods reveals a rich phase diagram in the regime of intermediate coupling strength. Instead of a proposed Cooper-pair Bose metal phase [A. E. Feiguin and M. P. A. Fisher, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 025303 (2009)] we find an incommensurate density wave at strong anisotropy and two different p-wave superfluid states with unconventional symmetry at intermediate anisotropy.
In this work, we discuss the emergence of $p$-wave superfluids of identical fermions in 2D lattices. The optical lattice potential manifests itself in an interplay between an increase in the density of states on the Fermi surface and the modification of the fermion-fermion interaction (scattering) amplitude. The density of states is enhanced due to an increase of the effective mass of atoms. In deep lattices, for short-range interacting atoms, the scattering amplitude is strongly reduced compared to free space due to a small overlap of wavefunctions of fermions sitting in the neighboring lattice sites, which suppresses the $p$-wave superfluidity. However, we show that for a moderate lattice depth there is still a possibility to create atomic $p$-wave superfluids with sizable transition temperatures. The situation is drastically different for fermionic polar molecules. Being dressed with a microwave field, they acquire a dipole-dipole attractive tail in the interaction potential. Then, due to a long-range character of the dipole-dipole interaction, the effect of the suppression of the scattering amplitude in 2D lattices is absent. This leads to the emergence of a stable topological $p_x+ip_y$ superfluid of identical microwave-dressed polar molecules.
We consider the non-equilibrium orbital dynamics of spin-polarized ultracold fermions in the first excited band of an optical lattice. A specific lattice depth and filling configuration is designed to allow the $p_x$ and $p_y$ excited orbital degrees of freedom to act as a pseudo-spin. Starting from the full Hamiltonian for p-wave interactions in a periodic potential, we derive an extended Hubbard-type model that describes the anisotropic lattice dynamics of the excited orbitals at low energy. We then show how dispersion engineering can provide a viable route to realizing collective behavior driven by p-wave interactions. In particular, Bragg dressing and lattice depth can reduce single-particle dispersion rates, such that a collective many-body gap is opened with only moderate Feshbach enhancement of p-wave interactions. Physical insight into the emergent gap-protected collective dynamics is gained by projecting the Hamiltonian into the Dicke manifold, yielding a one-axis twisting model for the orbital pseudo-spin that can be probed using conventional Ramsey-style interferometry. Experimentally realistic protocols to prepare and measure the many-body dynamics are discussed, including the effects of band relaxation, particle loss, spin-orbit coupling, and doping.