Chirality-Induced Spin Currents in a Fermi Gas

Abstract

We observe and model spin currents arising from chirality and effective spin-exchange interactions in a weakly interacting ${}^6$Li Fermi gas. Chirality is introduced by a static displacement between the center of the trapped atoms and the center of an applied magnetic bowl, which produces left- or right-handed spatially varying spin rotation. Spin current is directly observed via oscillations in the centers of mass of the spin-up and spin-down components, which appear to bounce off of or pass through one another, depending on the degree of handedness and s-wave scattering length. We show that this behavior obeys a driven oscillator equation with an effective spin-dependent driving force. Our measurements demonstrate chirality-induced spin selectivity via the direction of the current flow, extending CISS phenomena to Fermi gases.

13 pages, 8 figures