Dyke P, Hogan A, Herrera I, Kuhn C C N, Hoinka S, Vale C J
Optical Sciences Centre, ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne 3122, Australia.
Phys Rev Lett. 2021 Sep 3;127(10):100405. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.100405.
We present an experimental study of a two component Fermi gas following an interaction quench into the superfluid phase. Starting with a weakly attractive gas in the normal phase, interactions are ramped to unitarity at a range of rates and we measure the subsequent dynamics as the gas approaches equilibrium. Both the formation and condensation of fermion pairs are mapped via measurements of the pair momentum distribution and can take place on very different timescales, depending on the adiabaticity of the quench. The contact parameter is seen to respond very quickly to changes in the interaction strength, indicating that short-range correlations, based on the occupation of high-momentum modes, evolve far more rapidly than the correlations in low-momentum modes necessary for pair condensation.
