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Han Pu

Publications and source records attributed to Han Pu.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

Anderson Localization of cold atomic gases with effective spin-orbit interaction in a quasiperiodic optical lattice

We theoretically investigate the localization properties of a spin-orbit coupled spin-1/2 particle moving in a one-dimensional quasiperiodic potential, which can be experimentally implemented using cold atoms trapped in a quasiperiodic optical lattice potential and external laser fields. We present the phase diagram in the parameter space of the disorder strength and those related to the spin-orbit coupling. The phase diagram is verified via multifractal analysis of the atomic wavefunctions and the numerical simulation of diffusion dynamics. We found that spin-orbit coupling can lead to the spectra mixing (coexistence of extended and localized states) and the appearance of mobility edges.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Universal impurity-induced bound state in topological superfluids

We predict a universal mid-gap bound state in topological superfluids, induced by either non-magnetic or magnetic impurities in the strong scattering limit. This universal state is similar to the lowest-energy Caroli-de Gennes-Martricon bound state in a vortex core, but is bound to localized impurities. We argue that the observation of such a universal bound state can be a clear signature for identifying topological superfluids. We theoretically examine our argument for a spin-orbit coupled ultracold atomic Fermi gas trapped in a two-dimensional harmonic potential, by performing extensive self-consistent calculations within the mean-field Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory. A realistic scenario for observing universal bound state in ultracold $^{40}$K atoms is proposed.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Emergence of Topological and Strongly Correlated Ground States in trapped Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupled Bose Gases

We theoretically study an interacting few-body system of Rashba spin-orbit coupled two-component Bose gases confined in a harmonic trapping potential. We solve the interacting Hamiltonian at large Rashba coupling strengths using Exact Diagonalization scheme, and obtain the ground state phase diagram for a range of interatomic interactions and particle numbers. At small particle numbers, we observe that the bosons condense to an array of topological states with n+1/2 quantum angular momentum vortex configurations, where n = 0, 1, 2, 3... At large particle numbers, we observe two distinct regimes: at weaker interaction strengths, we obtain ground states with topological and symmetry properties that are consistent with mean-field theory computations; at stronger interaction strengths, we report the emergence of strongly correlated ground states.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Radio-frequency spectroscopy of weakly bound molecules in spin-orbit coupled atomic Fermi gases

We investigate theoretically radio-frequency spectroscopy of weakly bound molecules in an ultracold spin-orbit-coupled atomic Fermi gas. We consider two cases with either equal Rashba and Dresselhaus coupling or pure Rashba coupling. The former system has been realized very recently at Shanxi University [Wang et al., arXiv:1204.1887] and MIT [Cheuk et al., arXiv:1205.3483]. We predict realistic radio-frequency signals for revealing the unique properties of anisotropic molecules formed by spin-orbit coupling.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Quantum phase transition of Bose-Einstein condensates on a ring nonlinear lattice

We study the phase transitions in a one dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate on a ring whose atomic scattering length is modulated periodically along the ring. By using a modified Bogoliubov method to treat such a nonlinear lattice in the mean field approximation, we find that the phase transitions are of different orders when the modulation period is 2 and greater than 2. We further perform a full quantum mechanical treatment based on the time-evolving block decimation algorithm which confirms the mean field results and reveals interesting quantum behavior of the system. Our studies yield important knowledge of competing mechanisms behind the phase transitions and the quantum nature of this system.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Probing Majorana fermions in spin-orbit coupled atomic Fermi gases

We examine theoretically the visualization of Majorana fermions in a two-dimensional trapped ultracold atomic Fermi gas with spin-orbit coupling. By increasing an external Zeeman field, the trapped gas transits from non-topological to topological superfluid, via a mixed phase in which both types of superfluids coexist. We show that the zero-energy Majorana fermion, supported by the topological superfluid and localized at the vortex core, is clearly visible through (i) the core density and (ii) the local density of states, which are readily measurable in experiment. We present a realistic estimate on experimental parameters for ultracold $^{40}$K atoms.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Spin-orbit coupled weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensates in harmonic traps

We investigate theoretically the phase diagram of a spin-orbit coupled Bose gas in two-dimensional harmonic traps. We show that discrete Landau levels develop at strong spin-orbit coupling. For a weakly interacting gas, quantum states with skyrmion lattice patterns emerge spontaneously and preserve either parity symmetry or combined parity-time-reversal symmetry. These phases can be readily observed by experimentally engineering spin-orbit coupling and interatomic interactions for a cloud of $^{87}$Rb atoms in a highly oblate trap.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Expansion of 1D polarized superfluids: The FFLO state reveals itself

We study the expansion dynamics of a one dimensional polarized Fermi gas after sudden release from confinement using both the mean-field Bogoliubov-de Gennes and the numerically exact Time-Evolving Block Decimation methods. Our results show that experimentally observable spin density modulations directly related to the presence of a Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state develop during the expansion of the cloud, providing incontrovertible evidence of this long-sought state.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Half-quantum vortex state in a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate

We investigate theoretically the condensate state and collective excitations of a two-component Bose gas in two-dimensional harmonic traps subject to isotropic Rashba spin-orbit coupling. In the weakly interacting regime when the inter-species interaction is larger than the intra-species interaction ($g_{\uparrow\downarrow}>g$), we find that the condensate ground state has a half-quantum-angular-momentum vortex configuration with spatial rotational symmetry and skyrmion-type spin texture. Upon increasing the interatomic interaction beyond a threshold $g_{c}$, the ground state starts to involve higher-order angular momentum components and thus breaks the rotational symmetry. In the case of $g_{\uparrow\downarrow} g_{c}$ and $g_{\uparrow\downarrow}<g$) can be determined by solving the Bogoliubov equations for collective density oscillations of the half-quantum vortex state, and by analyzing the softening of mode frequencies. We present the phase diagram as functions of the interatomic interactions and the spin-orbit coupling. In addition, we directly simulate the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation to examine the dynamical properties of the system. Finally, we investigate the stability of the half-quantum vortex state against both the trap anisotropy and anisotropy in the spin-orbit coupling term.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Cavity-induced switching between localized and extended states in a non-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate

We study an ultracold atom-cavity coupling system, which had been implemented in experiment to display weak light nonlinearity [S. Gupta \textit{et al}., Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{99}, 213601 (2007)]. The model is described by a non-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate contained in a Fabry-Pérot optical resonator, in which two incommensurate standing-wave modes are excited and thus form a quasiperiodic optical lattice potential for the atoms. Special emphasis are paid to the variation of atomic wavefunction induced by the cavity light field. We show that bistability between the atomic localized and extended states can be generated under appropriate conditions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Rashba spin-orbit coupled atomic Fermi gases

We investigate theoretically BEC-BCS crossover physics in the presence of a Rashba spin-orbit coupling in a system of two-component Fermi gas with and without a Zeeman field that breaks the population balance between the two components. A new bound state (Rashba pair) emerges because of the spin-orbit interaction. We study the properties of Rashba pairs using a standard pair fluctuation theory. At zero temperature, the Rashba pairs condense into a macroscopic mixed spin state. We discuss in detail the experimental signatures for observing the condensation of Rashba pairs by calculating various physical observables which characterize the properties of the system and can be measured in experiment.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Single Impurity In Ultracold Fermi Superfluids

The role of impurities as experimental probes in the detection of quantum material properties is well appreciated. Here we study the effect of a single classical magnetic impurity in trapped ultracold Fermi superfluids. Depending on its shape and strength, a magnetic impurity can induce single or multiple mid-gap bound states in a superfluid Fermi gas. The multiple mid-gap states could coincide with the development of a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase within the superfluid. As an analog of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope, we propose a modified RF spectroscopic method to measure the local density of states which can be employed to detect these states and other quantum phases of cold atoms. A key result of our self consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes calculations is that a magnetic impurity can controllably induce an FFLO state at currently accessible experimental parameters.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Probing anisotropic superfluidity of rashbons in atomic Fermi gases

Motivated by the prospect of realizing a Fermi gas of $^{40}$K atoms with a synthetic non-Abelian gauge field, we investigate theoretically a strongly interacting Fermi gas in the presence of a Rashba spin-orbit coupling. As the two-fold spin degeneracy is lifted by spin-orbit interaction, bound pairs with mixed singlet and triplet pairings (referred to as rashbons) emerge, leading to an anisotropic superfluid. We show that this anisotropic superfluidity can be probed via measuring the momentum distribution and single-particle spectral function in a trapped atomic $^{40}$K cloud near a Feshbach resonance.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Measurement back-action on the quantum spin-mixing dynamics of a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate

We consider a small F=1 spinor condensate inside an optical cavity driven by an optical probe field, and subject the output of the probe to a homodyne detection, with the goal of investigating the effect of measurement back-action on the spin dynamics of the condensate. Using the stochastic master equation approach, we show that the effect of back-action is sensitive to not only the measurement strength but also the quantum fluctuation of the spinor condensate. The same method is also used to estimate the atom numbers below which the effect of back-action becomes so prominent that extracting spin dynamics from this cavity-based detection scheme is no longer practical.

quant-ph↗

Bogoliubov-de Gennes study of trapped spin-imbalanced unitary Fermi gases

It is quite common that several different phases exist simultaneously in a system of trapped quantum gases of ultra-cold atoms. One such example is the strongly-interacting Fermi gas with two imbalanced spin species, which has received a great amount of attention due to the possible presence of exotic superfluid phases. By employing novel numerical techniques and algorithms, we self-consistently solve the Bogoliubov de-Gennes equations, which describe Fermi superfluids in the mean-field framework. From this study, we investigate the novel phases of spin-imbalanced Fermi gases and examine the validity of the local density approximation (LDA), which is often invoked in the extraction of bulk properties from experimental measurements within trapped systems. We show how the validity of the LDA is affected by the trapping geometry, number of atoms and spin imbalance.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Multi-stability in an optomechanical system with two-component Bose-Einstein condensate

We investigate a system consisting of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate interacting dispersively with a Fabry-Perot optical cavity where the two components of the condensate are resonantly coupled to each other by another classical field. The key feature of this system is that the atomic motional degrees of freedom and the internal pseudo-spin degrees of freedom are coupled to the cavity field simultaneously, hence an effective spin-orbital coupling within the condensate is induced by the cavity. The interplay among the atomic center- of-mass motion, the atomic collective spin and the cavity field leads to a strong nonlinearity, resulting in multi- stable behavior in both matter wave and light wave at the few-photon level.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Concomitant Modulated Superfluidity In Polarized Fermionic Gases

Recent groundbreaking experiments studying the effects of spin polarization on pairing in unitary Fermi gases encountered mutual qualitative and quantitative discrepancies which seem to be a function of the confining geometry. Using novel numerical algorithms we study the solution space for a 3-dimensional fully self-consistent formulation of realistic systems with up to $10^{5}$ atoms. A study of the three types of solutions obtained demonstrates a tendency towards metastability as the confining geometry is elongated. One of these solutions, which is consistent with Rice experiments at high trap aspect ratio, supports a state strikingly similar to the long sought Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state. Our study helps to resolve the long-standing controversy concerning the discrepancies between the findings from two different experimental groups and highlights the versatility of actual-size numerical calculations for investigating inhomogeneous fermionic superfluids.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

Spin dynamics and domain formation of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical cavity

We consider a ferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) dispersively coupled to a unidirectional ring cavity. We show that the ability of a cavity to modify, in a highly nonlinear fashion, matter-wave phase shifts adds a new dimension to the study of spinor condensates both within and beyond the single-mode approximation. In addition to demonstrating strong matter-wave bistability as in our earlier publication [L. Zhou et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 160403 (2009)], we show that the interplay between atomic and cavity fields can greatly enrich both the physics of critical slowing down in spin mixing dynamics and the physics of spin-domain formation in spinor condensates.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗