Light Pulses Could Provide a New Route to Superconductivity

Scientists from the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research have used light pulses to transform Mott insulators into superconducting materials. Through numerical simulations, the researchers showed that pulse irradiation could induce unconventional superconductivity in a Mott insulator of the Hubbard model and found that this superconductivity occurred as a result of a phenomenon known as eta pairing.

The researchers further found that the superconductivity from eta pairing, which is believed to take place under nonequilibrium conditions in strongly correlated materials, was different from the superconductivity observed in the same correlated materials under equilibrium conditions, and was also different from traditional superconductivity. Also, in superconductivity from eta pairing, the nonlinear optical response was found to be essential to increase the number of η pairs and thus enhance the superconducting correlation in the photoexcited state.