Spin-Orbit-Coupled Two-Electron Fermi Gases of Ytterbium Atoms
Spin-Orbit-Coupled Two-Electron Fermi Gases of Ytterbium Atoms
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DOI：
10.1103/physreva.94.061604
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发表时间：
2016-08
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
B. Song;Chengdong He;Shanchao Zhang;E. Hajiyev;Wei Huang;Xiong-Jun Liu;Gyu-Boong Jo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
B. Song;Chengdong He;Shanchao Zhang;E. Hajiyev;Wei Huang;Xiong-Jun Liu;Gyu-Boong Jo
我们证明了在$^{173}$Yb原子的双电子费米气体中，通过耦合两个具有窄光学跃迁的超精细基态，实现了自旋轨道耦合（SOC）。由于$^1$S$_0$基态流形对外磁场不敏感，具有SU（$N$）对称性，利用光学交流Stark效应分离基态，与碱原子和镧系原子实验相比，具有较高的稳定性，并从其他超精细能级中分离出有效的自旋1/2子空间，实现了SOC。当动量依赖的自旋轨道间隙突然打开时的失相自旋动力学和自旋轨道耦合费米气体的不对称动量分布是SOC的标志。镱费米子的全光SOC的实现将为研究长寿命自旋轨道耦合费米气体提供一条新途径，并极大地扩展了我们研究类碱地原子自旋轨道物理的能力。
We demonstrate all-optical implementation of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in a two-electron Fermi gas of $^{173}$Yb atoms by coupling two hyperfine ground states with a narrow optical transition. Due to the SU($N$) symmetry of the $^1$S$_0$ ground-state manifold which is insensitive to external magnetic fields, an optical AC Stark effect is applied to split the ground spin states, which exhibits a high stability compared with experiments on alkali and lanthanide atoms, and separate out an effective spin-1/2 subspace from other hyperfine levels for the realization of SOC. The dephasing spin dynamics when a momentum-dependent spin-orbit gap being suddenly opened and the asymmetric momentum distribution of the spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas are observed as a hallmark of SOC. The realization of all-optical SOC for ytterbium fermions should offer a new route to a long-lived spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas and greatly expand our capability in studying novel spin-orbit physics with alkaline-earth-like atoms.