Light-induced switching between singlet and triplet superconducting states

Steven Gassner (), Clara S. Weber and Martin Claassen ()
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Steven Gassner: University of Pennsylvania
Clara S. Weber: University of Pennsylvania
Martin Claassen: University of Pennsylvania

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract While the search for topological triplet-pairing superconductivity has remained a challenge, recent developments in optically stabilizing metastable superconducting states suggest a new route to realizing this elusive phase. Here, we devise a testable theory of competing superconducting orders that permits ultrafast switching to an opposite-parity superconducting phase in centrosymmetric crystals with strong spin-orbit coupling. Using both microscopic and phenomenological models, we show that dynamical inversion symmetry breaking with a tailored light pulse can induce odd-parity (spin triplet) order parameter oscillations in a conventional even-parity (spin singlet) superconductor, which when driven strongly can send the system to a competing minimum in its free energy landscape. Our results provide new guiding principles for engineering unconventional electronic phases using light, suggesting a fundamentally non-equilibrium route toward realizing topological superconductivity.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45949-x

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