Observation of Quantum-Limited Spin Transport in Strongly Interacting Two-Dimensional Fermi Gases.

We measure the transport properties of two-dimensional ultracold Fermi gases during transverse demagnetization in a magnetic field gradient. Using a phase-coherent spin-echo sequence, we are able to distinguish bare spin diffusion from the Leggett-Rice effect, in which demagnetization is slowed by the precession of a spin current around the local magnetization. When the two-dimensional scattering length is tuned to be comparable to the inverse Fermi wave vector k_{F}^{-1}, we find that the bare transverse spin diffusivity reaches a minimum of 1.7(6)ℏ/m, where m is the bare particle mass. The rate of demagnetization is also reflected in the growth rate of the s-wave contact, observed using time-resolved spectroscopy. The contact rises to 0.28(3)k_{F}^{2} per particle, which quantifies how scaling symmetry is broken by near-resonant interactions, unlike in unitary three-dimensional systems. Our observations support the conjecture that, in systems with strong scattering, the local relaxation rate is bounded from above by k_{B}T/ℏ.

Observation of the Leggett-Rice effect in a unitary Fermi gas.

We observe that the diffusive spin current in a strongly interacting degenerate Fermi gas of (40)K precesses about the local magnetization. As predicted by Leggett and Rice, precession is observed both in the Ramsey phase of a spin-echo sequence, and in the nonlinearity of the magnetization decay. At unitarity, we measure a Leggett-Rice parameter γ=1.08(9) and a bare transverse spin diffusivity D(0)(⊥)=2.3(4)ℏ/m for a normal-state gas initialized with full polarization and at one-fifth of the Fermi temperature, where m is the atomic mass. One might expect γ=0 at unitarity, where two-body scattering is purely dissipative. We observe γ→0 as temperature is increased towards the Fermi temperature, consistent with calculations that show the degenerate Fermi sea restores a nonzero γ. Tuning the scattering length a, we find that a sign change in γ occurs in the range 0<(k(F)a)(-1)≲1.3, where k(F) is the Fermi momentum. We discuss how γ reveals the effective interaction strength of the gas, such that the sign change in γ indicates a switching of branch between a repulsive and an attractive Fermi gas.

Transverse demagnetization dynamics of a unitary Fermi gas.

Understanding the quantum dynamics of strongly interacting fermions is a problem relevant to diverse forms of matter, including high-temperature superconductors, neutron stars, and quark-gluon plasma. An appealing benchmark is offered by cold atomic gases in the unitary limit of strong interactions. Here, we study the dynamics of a transversely magnetized unitary Fermi gas in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. We observe the demagnetization of the gas, caused by diffusive spin transport. At low temperatures, the diffusion constant saturates to the conjectured quantum-mechanical lower bound ≃ h/m, where m is the particle mass. The development of pair correlations, indicating the transformation of the initially noninteracting gas toward a unitary spin mixture, is observed by measuring Tan's contact parameter.