Shapiro steps in strongly-interacting Fermi gases

Abstract

We report the observation of Shapiro steps in a periodically driven Josephson junction between strongly-interacting Fermi superfluids of ultracold atoms. We observe quantized plateaus in the current-potential characteristics, the height and width of which mirror the external drive frequency and the junction nonlinear response. Direct measurements of the current-phase relationship showcase how Shapiro steps arise from the synchronization between the relative phase of the two reservoirs and the external drive. Such mechanism is further supported by the detection of periodic phase-slippage processes, in the form of vortex-antivortex pairs. Our results are corroborated by a circuital model and numerical simulations, overall providing a clear understanding of Shapiro dynamics in atomic Fermi superfluids. Our work demonstrates phase-coherent and synchronization effects in driven strongly-interacting superfluids, opening prospects for studying emergent non-equilibrium dynamics in quantum many-body systems under external drives.