Optically induced superconductivity in striped La2-xBaxCuO4 by polarization-selective excitation in the near infrared

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • D. Nicoletti - , Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (Author)
  • E. Casandruc - , Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (Author)
  • Y. Laplace - , Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (Author)
  • V. Khanna - , Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Diamond Light Source, University of Oxford (Author)
  • C. R. Hunt - , Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Author)
  • S. Kaiser - , Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (Author)
  • S. S. Dhesi - , Diamond Light Source (Author)
  • G. D. Gu - , Brookhaven National Laboratory (Author)
  • J. P. Hill - , Brookhaven National Laboratory (Author)
  • A. Cavalleri - , Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, University of Oxford (Author)

Abstract

We show that superconducting interlayer coupling, which coexists with and is depressed by stripe order in La1.885Ba0.115CuO4, can be enhanced by excitation with near-infrared laser pulses. For temperatures lower than Tc=13 K, we observe a blue shift of the equilibrium Josephson plasma resonance, detected by terahertz-frequency reflectivity measurements. Key to this measurement is the ability to probe the optical properties at frequencies as low as 150 GHz, detecting the weak interlayer coupling strengths. For T>Tc a similar plasma resonance, absent at equilibrium, is induced up to the spin-ordering temperature TSO≃40 K. These effects are reminiscent but qualitatively different from the light-induced superconductivity observed by resonant phonon excitation in La1.675Eu0.2Sr0.125CuO6.5. Importantly, enhancement of the below-Tc interlayer coupling and its appearance above Tc are preferentially achieved when the near-infrared pump light is polarized perpendicular to the superconducting planes, likely due to more effective melting of stripe order and the less effective excitation of quasiparticles from the Cooper pair condensate when compared to in-plane excitation.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number100503
JournalPhysical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
Volume90
Issue number10
Publication statusPublished - 10 Sept 2014
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0001-9862-2788/work/142255368