Shapiro steps in strongly-interacting Fermi gases
Year: 2025
Authors: Del Pace G., Hernandez-Rajkov D., Singh V.P., Grani N., Fernandez M.F., Nesti G., Seman J.A., Inguscio M., Amico L., Roati G.
Autors Affiliation: Univ Florence, Dept Phys, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Univ Florence, European Lab Nonlinear Spect LENS, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Ist Nazl Ott Consiglio Nazl Ric CNR INO c o LENS, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Technol Innovat Inst, Quantum Res Ctr, Abu Dhabi, U Arab Emirates; Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Inst Fis, Ciudad De Mexico, Mexico; Campus Biomed Univ Rome, Dept Engn, Rome, Italy; INFN Sez Catania, Catania, Italy; Univ Catania, Dipartimento Fis & Astron, Catania, Italy.
Abstract: Driven many-body systems exhibit diverse and complex dynamical behaviors. Here, we report the observation of Shapiro steps in periodically driven Josephson junctions between strongly interacting Fermi superfluids of ultracold atoms. The height and the width of the observed quantized plateaus in the current-potential characteristics mirror the external drive frequency and the junction nonlinear response. Direct measurements of the current-phase relationship showcase how Shapiro steps arise from the synchronization between the relative phase of the two reservoirs and the external drive. Such a mechanism is further supported by the detection of periodic phase-slippage processes, in the form of vortex-antivortex pairs. Our results are corroborated by a circuital model and numerical simulations. Our work may open prospects for studying emergent nonequilibrium dynamics in quantum many-body systems under external drives.
Journal/Review: SCIENCE
Volume: 390 (6778) Pages from: 1125 to: 1129
More Information: G.R. and G.D.P. acknowledge financial support from the PNRR MUR project PE0000023-NQSTI. G.R. acknowledges funding from the Italian Ministry of University and Research under the PRIN2017 project CEnTraL and the Project CNR-FOE-LENS-2023. The authors acknowledge support from the European Union-NextGenerationEU for the Integrated Infrastructure initiative in Photonics and Quantum Sciences- I-PHOQS (IR0000016, ID D2B8D520, CUP B53C22001750006).This publication has received funding under the Horizon Europe program HORIZON-CL4-2022-QUANTUM-02-SGA via project 101113690 (PASQuanS2.1).J.A.S. acknowledges financial support from CONAHCyT grant CF-2023-I-72; DGAPA-UNAM-PAPIIT grant IN105724; CIC-UNAM grant LANMAC-2024; and European Community’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 871124.”KeyWords: Josephson-junction; DynamicsDOI: 10.1126/science.ads8885
