Lab creates superfluid circuit using fermions to study electron behavior

According to a study published in Physical Review Letters, the world's first superfluid circuit uses pairs of ultracold electron-like atoms.

The laboratory test bed gives physicists control over the strength of interactions between atoms, giving them a new way to explore the phenomena behind exotic materials.

Kevin Wright, assistant professor of physics at Dartmouth and senior researcher of the study, said that controlling the flow of electrons around circuits is a major part of modern technology.

Researchers don't fully understand how electrons move or can be controlled in exotic materials that can be useful for building quantum computers.

The new circuit acts as a quantum emulator to explore how electrons work in real materials, offering a way to analyze the movement of electrons in a highly controllable setting.

Wright said that electrons can do things that are far more strange and rich.

The particles are either fermions or bosons. Bosons tend to bunch together. electrons tend to avoid each other Ultracold atoms that act as fermions are the first to be used in a superfluid circuit.

The circuit is powered by the lithium 6. It has properties that make it act like an individual electron. The behavior of the atom is similar to that of individual electrons.

The first author of the paper who wrote the paper as a PhD candidate said that if we could scale the properties of the atoms to electrons, they would be flowing without resistance.

Laser light is used in a circuit to cool clouds of atoms. Once the atoms are slowed, the researchers can hold them in place, move them around, or otherwise control them in ways that mimic how individual electrons flow around circuits.

By adjusting magnetic fields, the team can change the way the atoms interact, making fermions attract or repel each other with varying strength, a feature that is not possible with individual electrons or other superfluid systems.

The first atomic circuit that is tunable in this way has been used in other experiments, but according to the researchers, lasers have been used in similar techniques. The structure of the circuit is provided by the lasers.

Wright said that they have crossed the threshold to build test circuits with fermionic quantum gases.

Researchers will be able to study the formation and decay ofpersistent currents that flow indefinitely without energy input.

Large experimental possibilities could be opened by the ability to emulate superconducting circuits. New kinds of devices that use superconductors and other exotic quantum materials could be created by the research.

The research paper was written by Daniel Allman and Parth Sabharwal.

More information: Yanping Cai et al, Persistent Currents in Rings of Ultracold Fermionic Atoms, Physical Review Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.150401 Journal information: Physical Review Letters Citation: Lab creates superfluid circuit using fermions to study electron behavior (2022, April 19) retrieved 19 April 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-04-lab-superfluid-circuit-fermions-electron.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.