Time-Resolved Spectral Gap Spectroscopy in a Quantum Simulator of Fermionic Superfluidity inside an Optical Cavity

We use an ensemble of laser-cooled strontium atoms in a high-finesse cavity to cleanly emulate the technique of rf spectroscopy employed in studies of BEC-BCS physics in fermionic superfluids of degenerate cold gases. Here, we leverage the multilevel internal structure of the atoms to study the physics of Cooper pair breaking in this system. In doing so, we observe and distinguish the properties of two distinct many-body gaps, the BCS pairing gap and the spectral gap, using nondestructive readout techniques. The latter is found to depend on the populations of the internal atomic states, reflecting the chemical potential dependence predicted in fermionic superfluids. This work opens the path for more fully exploiting the rich internal structure of atoms in cavity QED emulators to study both analogous systems and also more exotic states yet to be realized.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physical Review Letters
Published
2025-05-06
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.134.183404
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.25

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article

Time-Resolved Spectral Gap Spectroscopy in a Quantum Simulator of Fermionic Superfluidity inside an Optical Cavity

Zhijing Niu, Vera M. Schäfer, Eric Yilun Song, Dylan J. Young et al.
1 citations
Physical Review Letters
Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
1.25
article

Time-Resolved Spectral Gap Spectroscopy in a Quantum Simulator of Fermionic Superfluidity inside an Optical Cavity

Zhijing Niu, Vera M. Schäfer, Eric Yilun Song, Dylan J. Young, Robert J. Lewis-Swan, Anjun Chu, James K. Thompson, Diego Barberena, Ana María Rey
article en
1 citations

Abstract

We use an ensemble of laser-cooled strontium atoms in a high-finesse cavity to cleanly emulate the technique of rf spectroscopy employed in studies of BEC-BCS physics in fermionic superfluids of degenerate cold gases. Here, we leverage the multilevel internal structure of the atoms to study the physics of Cooper pair breaking in this system. In doing so, we observe and distinguish the properties of two distinct many-body gaps, the BCS pairing gap and the spectral gap, using nondestructive readout techniques. The latter is found to depend on the populations of the internal atomic states, reflecting the chemical potential dependence predicted in fermionic superfluids. This work opens the path for more fully exploiting the rich internal structure of atoms in cavity QED emulators to study both analogous systems and also more exotic states yet to be realized.

Physical Review LettersVol. 134(18)
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (US), University of Colorado System (US), Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE), University of Oklahoma (US)
National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Simons Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 22%
Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
1.25
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