Pairing gap and in-gap excitations in trapped fermionic superfluids

We consider trapped atomic Fermi gases with Feshbach-resonance enhanced interactions in pseudogap and superfluid temperatures. We calculate the spectrum of RF(or laser)-excitations for transitions that transfer atoms out of the superfluid state. The spectrum displays the pairing gap and also the contribution of unpaired atoms, i.e. in-gap excitations. The results support the conclusion that a superfluid, where pairing is a many-body effect, was observed in recent experiments on RF spectroscopy of the pairing gap.Comment: Journal versio

Pairing in a three component Fermi gas

We consider pairing in a three-component gas of degenerate fermions. In particular, we solve the finite temperature mean-field theory of an interacting gas for a system where both interaction strengths and fermion masses can be unequal. At zero temperature we find a a possibility of a quantum phase transition between states associated with pairing between different pairs of fermions. On the other hand, finite temperature behavior of the three-component system reveals some qualitative differences from the two-component gas: for a range of parameters it is possible to have two different critical temperatures. The lower one corresponds to a transition between different pairing channels, while the higher one corresponds to the usual superfluid-normal transition. We discuss how these phase transitions could be observed in ultracold gases of fermionic atoms.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Strongly interacting Fermi gases with density imbalance

We consider density-imbalanced Fermi gases of atoms in the strongly interacting, i.e. unitarity, regime. The Bogoliubov-deGennes equations for a trapped superfluid are solved. They take into account the finite size of the system, as well as give rise to both phase separation and FFLO type oscillations in the order parameter. We show how radio-frequency spectroscopy reflects the phase separation, and can provide direct evidence of the FFLO-type oscillations via observing the nodes of the order parameter.Comment: Added one reference. Published in PR

Molecular coupling of light with plasmonic waveguides

We use molecules to couple light into and out of microscale plasmonic waveguides. Energy transfer, mediated by surface plasmons, from donor molecules to acceptor molecules over ten micrometer distances is demonstrated. Also surface plasmon coupled emission from the donor molecules is observed at similar distances away from the excitation spot. The lithographic fabrication method we use for positioning the dye molecules allows scaling to nanometer dimensions. The use of molecules as couplers between far-field and near-field light offers the advantages that no special excitation geometry is needed, any light source can be used to excite plasmons and the excitation can be localized below the diffraction limit. Moreover, the use of molecules has the potential for integration with molecular electronics and for the use of molecular self-assembly in fabrication. Our results constitute a proof-of-principle demonstration of a plasmonic waveguide where signal in- and outcoupling is done by molecules.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Trapping of 27 bp - 8 kbp DNA and immobilization of thiol-modified DNA using dielectrophoresis

Dielectrophoretic trapping of six different DNA fragments, sizes varying from the 27 to 8416 bp, has been studied using confocal microscopy. The effect of the DNA length and the size of the constriction between nanoscale fingertip electrodes on the trapping efficiency have been investigated. Using finite element method simulations in conjunction with the analysis of the experimental data, the polarizabilities of the different size DNA fragments have been calculated for different frequencies. Also the immobilization of trapped hexanethiol- and DTPA-modified 140 nm long DNA to the end of gold nanoelectrodes was experimentally quantified and the observations were supported by density functional theory calculations.Comment: 17 pages (1 column version), 8 figure