Andrea Cavalleri

Abstract:

Motivated by recent pump-probe experiments indicating enhanced coherent c-axis transport in underdoped YBCO, we study Josephson junctions periodically driven by optical pulses. We propose a mechanism for this observation by demonstrating that a parametrically driven Josephson junction shows an enhanced imaginary part of the low-frequency conductivity when the driving frequency is above the plasma frequency, implying an effectively enhanced Josephson coupling. We generalize this analysis to a bilayer system of Josephson junctions modeling YBCO. Again, the Josephson coupling is enhanced when the pump frequency is blue detuned to either of the two plasma frequencies of the material. We show that the emergent driven state is a genuine, nonequilibrium superconducting state, in which equilibrium relations between the Josephson coupling, current fluctuations, and the critical current no longer hold.

Abstract:

Light fields at terahertz and mid-infrared frequencies allow for the direct excitation of collective modes in condensed matter, which can be driven to large amplitudes. For example, excitation of the crystal lattice has been shown to stimulate insulator-metal transitions, melt magnetic order or enhance superconductivity. Here, we generalize these ideas and explore the simultaneous excitation of more than one lattice mode, which are driven with controlled relative phases. This nonlinear mode mixing drives rotations as well as displacements of the crystal-field atoms, mimicking the application of a magnetic field and resulting in the excitation of spin precession in the rare-earth orthoferrite ErFeO 3. Coherent control of lattice rotations may become applicable to other interesting problems in materials research-for example, as a way to affect the topology of electronic phases.

Abstract:

We review our recent time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments, which measure the transient electronic structure of optically driven graphene. For pump photon energies in the near infrared ([Formula: see text]), we have discovered the formation of a population-inverted state near the Dirac point, which may be of interest for the design of THz lasing devices and optical amplifiers. At lower pump photon energies ([Formula: see text]), for which interband absorption is not possible in doped samples, we find evidence for free carrier absorption. In addition, when mid-infrared pulses are made resonant with an infrared-active in-plane phonon of bilayer graphene ([Formula: see text]), a transient enhancement of the electron-phonon coupling constant is observed, providing interesting perspective for experiments that report light-enhanced superconductivity in doped fullerites in which a similar lattice mode was excited. All the studies reviewed here have important implications for applications of graphene in optoelectronic devices and for the dynamical engineering of electronic properties with light.

Abstract:

Many applications in photonics require all-optical manipulation of plasma waves1, which can concentrate electromagnetic energy on sub-wavelength length scales. This is difficult in metallic plasmas because of their small optical nonlinearities. Some layered superconductors support Josephson plasma waves2, 3, involving oscillatory tunnelling of the superfluid between capacitively coupled planes. Josephson plasma waves are also highly nonlinear4, and exhibit striking phenomena such as cooperative emission of coherent terahertz radiation5, 6, superconductor–metal oscillations7 and soliton formation8. Here, we show that terahertz Josephson plasma waves can be parametrically amplified through the cubic tunnelling nonlinearity in a cuprate superconductor. Parametric amplification is sensitive to the relative phase between pump and seed waves, and may be optimized to achieve squeezing of the order-parameter phase fluctuations9 or terahertz single-photon devices.