Light induced space-time patterns in a superfluid Fermi gas

Patterns resulted from modulation instability are ubiquitous and have been extensively studied in optics and Bose-Einstein condensates. However, these patterns have not been realized in ultracold Fermi gases, although there has been considerable theoretical interest in this field. Here we report an experimental observation of space-time patterns in a superfluid Fermi gas excited by red-detuned laser light. Longitudinal spatially fluctuated laser beams induce the spontaneous formation of two different kinds of patterns. For strongly interacting Fermi gas, the induced patterns accompanied by phonon excitations demonstrate a striking “X”-type dispersion relation between frequency and wavevector. Then, the propagation of such patterns in the Bose-Einstein condensate to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer crossover is investigated, which is related to the speed of sound and agrees well with theoretical calculations. The observed patterns in noninteracting Fermi gases are stationary without phonon excitations and show a much longer lifetime.