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Diffraction of a superfluid Fermi gas by an atomic grating

C. P. Search·H. Pu·W. Zhang·P. Meystre
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Abstract

An atomic grating generated by a pulsed standing wave laser field is proposed to manipulate the superfluid state in a quantum degenerate gas of fermionic atoms. We show that in the presence of atomic Cooper pairs, the density oscillations of the gas caused by the atomic grating exhibit a much longer coherence time than that in the normal Fermi gas. Our result indicates that the technique of a pulsed atomic grating can be a potential candidate to detect the atomic superfluid state in a quantum degenerate Fermi gas.

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C. P. Search, H. Pu, W. Zhang, P. Meystre. 2001-10-08. Diffraction of a superfluid Fermi gas by an atomic grating. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.88.110401

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