Publication
Title
Effects of spin-orbit coupling on the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition and the vortex-antivortex structure in two-dimensional Fermi gases
Author
Abstract
We investigate the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition in a 2D Fermi gas with spin-orbit coupling (SOC), as a function of the two-body binding energy and a perpendicular Zeeman field. By including a generic form of the SOC, as a function of Rashba and Dresselhaus terms, we study the evolution between the experimentally relevant equal Rashba-Dresselhaus (ERD) case and the Rashba-only (RO) case. We show that in the ERD case, at a fixed nonzero Zeeman field, the BKT transition temperature TBKT is increased by the presence of SOC for all values of the binding energy. We also find a significant increase in the value of the Clogston limit compared to the case without SOC. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the superfluid density tensor becomes anisotropic (except in the RO case), leading to an anisotropic phase-fluctuation action that describes elliptic vortices and antivortices, which become circular in the RO limit. This deformation constitutes an important experimental signature for superfluidity in a 2D Fermi gas with ERD SOC. Finally, we show that the anisotropic sound velocities exhibit anomalies at low temperatures, in the vicinity of quantum phase transitions between topologically distinct uniform superfluid phases.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Physical review letters. - New York, N.Y., 1958, currens
Publication
New York, N.Y. : American Physical Society , 2014
ISSN
0031-9007 [print]
1079-7114 [online]
DOI
10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.113.165304
Volume/pages
113 :16 (2014) , 5 p.
Article Reference
165304
ISI
000344033600005
Pubmed ID
25361264
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Dynamic effects in coupled superconductor-ferromagnet nanosystems.
Solitons and vortex patterns in superfluid Fermi gases.
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 02.12.2014
Last edited 09.10.2023
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