Meera M. Parish

Non-saturating magnetoresistance in heavily disordered semiconductors

The resistance of a homogeneous semiconductor increases quadratically with magnetic field at low fields and, except in very special cases, saturates at fields much larger than the inverse of the carrier mobility, a number typically of the order of 1 T (refs 1, 2). A surprising exception to this behaviour has recently been observed in doped silver chalcogenides, which exhibit an anomalously large, quasi-linear magnetoresistive response that extends down to low fields and survives, even at extreme fields of 55 T and beyond. Here we present a simple model of a macroscopically disordered and strongly inhomogeneous semiconductor that exhibits a similar non-saturating magnetoresistance. In addition to providing a possible explanation for the behaviour of doped silver chalcogenides, our model suggests potential routes for the construction of magnetic field sensors with a large, controllable and linear response.

Classical magnetotransport of inhomogeneous conductors

We present a model of magnetotransport of inhomogeneous conductors based on an array of coupled four-terminal elements. We show that this model generically yields nonsaturating magnetoresistance at large fields. We also discuss how this approach simplifies finite-element analysis of bulk inhomogeneous semiconductors in complex geometries. We argue that this is an explanation of the observed nonsaturating magnetoresistance in silver chalcogenides and potentially in other disordered conductors. Our method may be used to design the magnetoresistive response of a microfabricated array.

Finite-temperature phase diagram of a polarized Fermi condensate

The two-component Fermi gas is the simplest fermion system exhibiting superfluidity, and as such is relevant to topics ranging from superconductivity to quantum chromodynamics. Ultracold atomic gases provide an exceptionally clean realization of this system, where interatomic interactions and atom spin populations are both independently tuneable. Here we show that the finite-temperature phase diagram contains a region of phase separation between the superfluid and normal states that touches the boundary of second-order superfluid transitions at a tricritical point, reminiscent of the phase diagram of 3He–4He mixtures. A variation of interaction strength then results in a line of tricritical points that terminates at zero temperature on the molecular Bose–Einstein condensate side. On this basis, we argue that tricritical points are fundamental to understanding experiments on polarized atomic Fermi gases.

Magnetocapacitance in nonmagnetic composite media.

The dielectric response in a magnetic field is routinely used to probe the existence of coupled magnetic and elastic order in the multiferroics. However, here we demonstrate that magnetism is not necessary to produce a magnetocapacitance when the material is inhomogeneous. By considering a two-dimensional, two-component composite medium, we find a characteristic dielectric resonance that depends on magnetic field. We propose this as a possible signature of inhomogeneities and we argue that this behavior has already been observed in nanoporous silicon and some manganites.

Nonsaturating magnetoresistance of inhomogeneous conductors: Comparison of experiment and simulation

The silver chalcogenides provide a striking example of the benefits of imperfection. Nanothreads of excess silver cause distortions in the current flow that yield a linear and nonsaturating transverse magnetoresistance (MR). Associated with the large and positive MR is a negative longitudinal MR. The longitudinal MR only occurs in the three-dimensional limit and thereby permits the determination of a characteristic length scale set by the spatial inhomogeneity. We find that this fundamental inhomogeneity length can be as large as 10μm. Systematic measurements of the diagonal and off-diagonal components of the resistivity tensor in various sample geometries show clear evidence of the distorted current paths posited in theoretical simulations. We use a random-resistor network model to fit the linear MR, and expand it from two to three dimensions to depict current distortions in the third (thickness) dimension. When compared directly to experiments on Ag_(2±δ)Se and Ag_(2±δ)Te, in magnetic fields up to 55T, the model identifies conductivity fluctuations due to macroscopic inhomogeneities as the underlying physical mechanism. It also accounts reasonably quantitatively for the various components of the resistivity tensor observed in the experiments.

Observation of Attractive and Repulsive Polarons in a Bose-Einstein Condensate.

The problem of an impurity particle moving through a bosonic medium plays a fundamental role in physics. However, the canonical scenario of a mobile impurity immersed in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) has not yet been realized. Here, we use radio frequency spectroscopy of ultracold bosonic ^{39}K atoms to experimentally demonstrate the existence of a well-defined quasiparticle state of an impurity interacting with a BEC. We measure the energy of the impurity both for attractive and repulsive interactions, and find excellent agreement with theories that incorporate three-body correlations, both in the weak-coupling limits and across unitarity. The spectral response consists of a well-defined quasiparticle peak at weak coupling, while for increasing interaction strength, the spectrum is strongly broadened and becomes dominated by the many-body continuum of excited states. Crucially, no significant effects of three-body decay are observed. Our results open up exciting prospects for studying mobile impurities in a bosonic environment and strongly interacting Bose systems in general.

Experimental consequences of the s-wave cos(k(x))cos(k(y)) superconductivity in the iron pnictides

The experimental consequences of different order parameters in iron-based superconductors are theoretically analyzed. We consider both nodeless and nodal order parameters, with emphasis on the cos(k(x))cos(k(y)) nodeless order parameter recently derived b

Polarized Fermi condensates with unequal masses: tuning the tricritical point.

We consider a two-component atomic Fermi gas within a mean-field, single-channel model, where both the mass and population of each component are unequal. We show that the tricritical point at zero temperature evolves smoothly from the BEC to BCS side of the resonance as a function of mass ratio r. We find that the interior gap state proposed by Liu and Wilczek is always unstable to phase separation, while the breached pair state with one Fermi surface for the excess fermions exhibits differences in its density of states and pair correlation functions depending on which side of the resonance it lies. Finally, we show that, when r greater, similar 3.95, the finite-temperature phase diagram of trapped gases at unitarity becomes topologically distinct from the equal mass system.

Ultrafast many-body interferometry of impurities coupled to a Fermi sea

Sluggish turmoil in the Fermi sea The nonequilibrium dynamics of many-body quantum systems are tricky to study experimentally or theoretically. As an experimental setting, dilute atomic gases offer an advantage over electrons in metals. In this environment, the heavier atoms make collective processes that involve the entire Fermi sea occur at the sluggish time scale of microseconds. Cetina et al. studied these dynamics by using a small cloud of 40K atoms that was positioned at the center of a far larger 6Li cloud. Controlling the interactions between K and Li atoms enabled a detailed look into the formation of quasiparticles associated with K “impurity” atoms. Science, this issue p. 96 Precise manipulation of interactions between impurity and majority atoms gives insight into polaron formation. The fastest possible collective response of a quantum many-body system is related to its excitations at the highest possible energy. In condensed matter systems, the time scale for such “ultrafast” processes is typically set by the Fermi energy. Taking advantage of fast and precise control of interactions between ultracold atoms, we observed nonequilibrium dynamics of impurities coupled to an atomic Fermi sea. Our interferometric measurements track the nonperturbative quantum evolution of a fermionic many-body system, revealing in real time the formation dynamics of quasi-particles and the quantum interference between attractive and repulsive states throughout the full depth of the Fermi sea. Ultrafast time-domain methods applied to strongly interacting quantum gases enable the study of the dynamics of quantum matter under extreme nonequilibrium conditions.

Impurity in a Bose-Einstein Condensate and the Efimov Effect.

We investigate the zero-temperature properties of an impurity particle interacting with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), using a variational wave function that includes up to two Bogoliubov excitations of the BEC. This allows one to capture three-body Efimov physics, as well as to recover the first nontrivial terms in the weak-coupling expansion. We show that the energy and quasiparticle residue of the dressed impurity (polaron) are significantly lowered by three-body correlations, even for weak interactions where there is no Efimov trimer state in a vacuum. For increasing attraction between the impurity and the BEC, we observe a smooth crossover from atom to Efimov trimer, with a superposition of states near the Efimov resonance. We furthermore demonstrate that three-body loss does not prohibit the experimental observation of these effects. Our results thus suggest a route to realizing Efimov physics in a stable quantum many-body system for the first time.