Work

Heating a dipolar quantum fluid into a solid

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: Raising the temperature of a material enhances the thermal motion of particles. Such an increase in thermal energy commonly leads to the melting of a solid into a fluid and eventually vaporises the liquid into a gaseous phase of matter. Here, we study the finite-temperature physics of dipolar quantum fluids and find surprising deviations from this general phenomenology. In particular, we describe how heating a dipolar superfluid from near-zero temperatures can induce a phase transition to a supersolid state with a broken translational symmetry. We discuss the observation of this effect in experiments on ultracold dysprosium atoms, which opens the door for exploring the unusual thermodynamics of dipolar quantum fluids.

Source: Nature Communications

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37207-3

Authors: J. Sánchez-Baena, C. Politi, F. Maucher, F. Ferlaino, T. Pohl