Non-equilibrium anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy for investigating Higgs modes in superconductors

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Tomke E. Glier - , University of Hamburg (Author)
  • Sida Tian - , Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Author)
  • Mika Rerrer - , University of Hamburg (Author)
  • Lea Westphal - , University of Hamburg, Technical University of Munich (Author)
  • Garret Lüllau - , University of Hamburg, Materials and Quantum Phenomena Laboratory (Author)
  • Liwen Feng - , Chair of Ultrafast Solid State Physics and Photonics (Author)
  • Jakob Dolgner - , Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Author)
  • Rafael Haenel - , Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Author)
  • Marta Zonno - , Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, University of British Columbia, French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) (Author)
  • Hiroshi Eisaki - , National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Author)
  • Martin Greven - , University of Minnesota - College of Science and Engineering (Author)
  • Andrea Damascelli - , University of British Columbia (Author)
  • Stefan Kaiser - , Chair of Ultrafast Solid State Physics and Photonics (Author)
  • Dirk Manske - , Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (Author)
  • Michael Rübhausen - , University of Hamburg (Author)

Abstract

Even before its role in electroweak symmetry breaking, the Anderson-Higgs mechanism was introduced to explain the Meissner effect in superconductors. Spontaneous symmetry-breaking yields massless phase modes representing the low-energy excitations of the Mexican-Hat potential. Only in superconductors the phase mode is shifted towards higher energies owing to the gauge field of the charged condensate. This results in a low-energy excitation spectrum governed by the Higgs mode. Consequently, the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer-like Meissner effect signifies a macroscopic quantum condensate in which a photon acquires mass, representing a one-to-one analogy to high-energy physics. We report on an innovative spectroscopic technique to study symmetries and energies of the Higgs modes in the high-temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 after a soft quench of the Mexican-Hat potential. Population inversion induced by an initial laser pulse leads to an additional anti-Stokes Raman-scattering signal, which is consistent with polarization-dependent Higgs modes. Within Ginzburg-Landau theory, the Higgs-mode energy is connected to the Cooper-pair coherence length. Within a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer weak-coupling model we develop a quantitative and coherent description of single-particle and two-particle channels. This opens the avenue for Higgs Spectroscopy in quantum condensates and provides a unique pathway to control and explore Higgs physics.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number7027
JournalNature communications
Volume16
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jul 2025
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 40744925
ORCID /0000-0001-9862-2788/work/191533885