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A theory for the parametric cooling of the Josephson phase in bilayer cuprates

S. J. Denny, Stephen R. L. Clark, Yannis Laplace, A. Cavalleri, Dieter Jaksch

Published Nov 12, 2014• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We propose and analyze a scheme for parametrically cooling bilayer cuprates based on the selective driving of a c-axis vibrational mode. The scheme exploits the vibration as a transducer making the Josephson plasma frequencies time-dependent. We show how modulation at the difference frequency between the intraand interbilayer plasmon substantially suppresses interbilayer phase fluctuations, responsible for switching c-axis transport from a superconducting to resistive state. Our calculations indicate that this may provide a viable mechanism for stabilizing non-equilibrium superconductivity even above Tc, provided a finite pair density survives between the bilayers out of equilibrium.

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Abstract We investigate the Meissner effect in a parametrically driven superconductor using a semiclassical U(1) lattice gauge theory. Specifically, we periodically drive the z-axis tunneling, which leads to an enhancement of the imaginary part of the z-axis conductivity at low frequencies if the driving frequency is blue-detuned from the plasma frequency. This has been proposed as a possible mechanism for light-enhanced interlayer transport in YBa2C3O7−δ (YBCO). In contrast to this enhancement of the conductivity, we find that the screening of magnetic fields is less effective than in equilibrium for blue-detuned driving, while it displays a tendency to be enhanced for red-detuned driving.

arXiv:2204.12989•New Journal of Physics•Oct 19, 2022•3 citations
We propose and analyze a scheme for parametrically cooling bilayer cuprates based on the selective driving of a c-axis vibrational mode. The scheme exploits the vibration as a transducer making the Josephson plasma frequencies time-dependent. We show how modulation at the difference frequency between the intraand interbilayer plasmon substantially suppresses interbilayer phase fluctuations, responsible for switching c-axis transport from a superconducting to resistive state. Our calculations indicate that this may provide a viable mechanism for stabilizing non-equilibrium superconductivity even above Tc, provided a finite pair density survives between the bilayers out of equilibrium.
In this dissertation, we theoretically demonstrate laser light induced control and cooling over the order parameter of superconducting cuprates. We predict a non-equilibrium state with enhanced robustness against thermal fluctuations when pumped with coherent pulses. This might ultimately increase the critical temperature of the cuprate. In particular, we propose a parametric cooling scheme for a bilayer cuprate modelled phenomenologically as a stack of long intrinsic Josephson junctions. We identify a parameter regime, which according to the switching current distribution allows a reduction of the effective system temperature by approximately 25%. This cooling scheme suppresses the thermal excitation of Josephson vortices. This might lead to an indirect mechanism for controlling topological excitations in the phase of the superconducting order parameter. We further find that the strong driving of the cuprates can lead to parametric instabilities. To investigate the effect strong driving can have on the dissipative dynamics, we derive a FloquetMarkov master equation. We find that strong driving is a measure for probing the bath spectral density of otherwise inaccessible condensed matter systems.
Thanks to growing capibilities in modulating the properties of materials by selectively driving a specific degree of freedom, along with recent developments in terahertz science, it has been possible to excite and probe the Josephson mode in cuprate superconductors. It is believed that in these materials, phase fluctuations in the superconducting order parameter, which are manifested by Josephson plasmonic excitations can be important in determining the critical temperature. Current efforts in finding novel ways of enhancing superconductivity are geared towards developing ways of using coherent control of this phase to reduce thermal fluctuations, hence improving the effective critical temperature in such materials. With this in view, we propose a 'Doppler' Cooling scheme for layered superconductors having a bilayer structure and conduct a feasibility study to assess their applicability to such systems. By modelling a bilayer cuprate unit-cell as two coupled Josephson junctions, we find that it is possible to induce transitions between and interlayer and higher energy intralayer plasmonic mode via driving from an externally applied electromagnetic field only when the junction is current biased. Our study shows that the physics of the system allow such a scheme to be implemented. The low recoil imparted by photons at terahertz frequencies enables us to apply the same framework as for cooling of atomic systems. The relatively long lifetimes (∼ 0.1 ns) against spontaneous decay estimated imply that cooling is not likely to be limited by inherent features of the scheme but will rather depend on other factors, such as the competition between cooling and rethermalisation. These factors need to be further studied to assess the experimental viability of the proposed scheme.
We put forth a mechanism for enhancing the interlayer transport in cuprate superconductors, by optically driving plasmonic excitations along the ccc axis with a frequency that is blue-detuned from the Higgs frequency. The plasmonic excitations induce a collective oscillation of the Higgs field which induces a parametric enhancement of the superconducting response, as we demonstrate with a minimal analytical model. Furthermore, we perform simulations of a particle-hole symmetric U(1)U(1)U(1) lattice gauge theory and find good agreement with our analytical prediction. We map out the renormalization of the interlayer coupling as a function of the parameters of the optical field and demonstrate that the Higgs mode mediated enhancement can be larger than 5050%50.
Twisted cuprate bilayers have been predicted to host high-temperature chiral d+id′d+id'd+id′ superconductivity, originating from higher-order Josephson coupling processes. In such two-dimensional superconducting systems, long-wavelength fluctuations in the phase of the superconducting order parameter constitute gapless collective modes and therefore remain significant even at zero temperature. Here, we perform a theoretical analysis of the low-energy phase fluctuations in twisted ddd-wave superconducting bilayers within a self-consistent harmonic approximation, systematically retaining Josephson coupling to all orders. We demonstrate that higher-order Josephson coupling processes lead to nontrivial modifications of the phase dynamics. The momentum-resolved summand of the relative-phase stiffness is nonzero even in the normal state because interlayer tunneling explicitly breaks the intralayer U(1) symmetry, but its momentum integral vanishes for the continuum dispersion. The relative-phase stiffness is smaller in the d+id′d+id'd+id′ phase than in the ddd-wave phase, while the overall-phase stiffness has the opposite behavior. Furthermore, phase fluctuations strongly soften the Josephson plasma frequency near a twist angle of 45∘45^\circ45∘ and also substantially reduce the Josephson critical current.
Higgs-mediated enhancement of interlayer transport in high-TcT_cTc​ superconductors
We put forth a mechanism for enhancing the interlayer transport in cuprate superconductors, by optically driving plasmonic excitations with a frequency that is blue-detuned from the Higgs frequency. The plasmonic excitations induce a collective oscillation of the Higgs field which induces parametric enhancement of the superconducting response, as we demonstrate with a minimal analytical model. Furthermore, we perform relativistic U(1)U(1)U(1) lattice gauge simulations and find good agreement with our analytical prediction. We map out the renormalization of the interlayer coupling as a function of the parameters of the optical field and demonstrate that the Higgs-mediated enhancement can be larger than 50%50\%50%.
Abstract We investigate the Meissner effect in a parametrically driven superconductor using a semiclassical U(1) lattice gauge theory. Specifically, we periodically drive the z-axis tunneling, which leads to an enhancement of the imaginary part of the z-axis conductivity at low frequencies if the driving frequency is blue-detuned from the plasma frequency. This has been proposed as a possible mechanism for light-enhanced interlayer transport in YBa2C3O7−δ (YBCO). In contrast to this enhancement of the conductivity, we find that the screening of magnetic fields is less effective than in equilibrium for blue-detuned driving, while it displays a tendency to be enhanced for red-detuned driving.