Giant Resonant Enhancement of Photoinduced Dynamical Cooper Pairing, far above $T_c$

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Authors: Sambuddha Chattopadhyay, Marios H. Michael, A. Cavalleri, Eugene Demler
Cited by: 0

Abstract

Pump-probe experiments performed on $\mathrm{K}_3\mathrm{C}_{60}$ have unveiled both optical and transport signatures of metastable light-induced superconductivity up to room temperature, far above $T_c$. Recent experiments have uncovered that excitation in the vicinity of $50 ~\textrm{meV}$ enables the observation of high temperature light-induced superconductivity at significantly lower fluences. Inspired by these experiments we develop a mechanism which can explain such a giant resonant enhancement of light-induced superconductivity. Within a minimal non-linear Holstein model, we show that resonantly driving optical Raman modes leads to a time-dependent electron-phonon coupling. Such a coupling then modulates the effective electron-electron attraction, with the strongest modulations occurring when the drive is resonant with the phonon frequency. These dynamical modulations of the pairing interactions lead to Floquet-BCS instabilities at temperatures far exceeding equilibrium $T_c$, as observed in experiments. We conclude by discussing the implications of our general analysis on the $\mathrm{K}_3\mathrm{C}_{60}$ experiments specifically and suggesting experimental signatures of our mechanism.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism Strong Light-Matter Interactions Organic and Molecular Conductors Research

Publication details

Journal / source
arXiv (Cornell University)
Publication date
26 January 2026
Document type
Preprint