Shin Y, Zwierlein M W, Schunck C H, Schirotzek A, Ketterle W
Department of Physics, MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Jul 21;97(3):030401. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.030401. Epub 2006 Jul 18.
We have observed phase separation between the superfluid and the normal component in a strongly interacting Fermi gas with imbalanced spin populations. The in situ distribution of the density difference between two trapped spin components is obtained using phase-contrast imaging and 3D image reconstruction. A shell structure is clearly identified where the superfluid region of equal densities is surrounded by a normal gas of unequal densities. The phase transition induces a dramatic change in the density profiles as excess fermions are expelled from the superfluid.
