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Advanced Quantum Technologies

Toward the Light‐Operated Superconducting Devices: Circularly Polarized Radiation Manipulates the Current‐Carrying States in Superconducting Rings

Mihail D Croitoru, Sergey V. Mironov, Brahim Lounis, A. I. Buzdin

Published Aug 25, 2022• 24 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract The ability to rapidly control and manipulate superconducting states is one of the great challenges of modern condensed matter physics. Circularly polarized radiation interacting with a superconducting condensate acts as an effective magnetic field that can generate supercurrents and DC magnetic moments through the inverse Faraday effect (IFE). Using the time‐dependent Ginzburg–Landau (TDGL) equation formalism, the current‐carrying states of a small superconducting ring illuminated by such radiation is calculated. Numerical simulations demonstrate the possibility to on‐demand switch between current‐carrying states in the superconductor by controlling the helicity of the electromagnetic field polarization. This result opens the way to all‐optical operation of superconducting devices.

DOI
10.1002/qute.202200054

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Abstract The ability to rapidly control and manipulate superconducting states is one of the great challenges of modern condensed matter physics. Circularly polarized radiation interacting with a superconducting condensate acts as an effective magnetic field that can generate supercurrents and DC magnetic moments through the inverse Faraday effect (IFE). Using the time‐dependent Ginzburg–Landau (TDGL) equation formalism, the current‐carrying states of a small superconducting ring illuminated by such radiation is calculated. Numerical simulations demonstrate the possibility to on‐demand switch between current‐carrying states in the superconductor by controlling the helicity of the electromagnetic field polarization. This result opens the way to all‐optical operation of superconducting devices.
We provide a theoretical analysis of the possibility of using circularly polarized radiation to switch between two different quantum states of a superconducting nanoring subjected to the half quantum flux. Numerical modeling, performed in the framework of the time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau equation, reveals the condition for on-demand switching between current-carrying states with different helicities with 100% probability. An experimental demonstration of this effect will be unambiguous evidence of the inverse Faraday effect in superconductors and pave the way for the design of light-operated superconducting devices.
The Cooper pairs in superconducting condensates are shown to acquire a temperature-dependent dc magnetic moment under the effect of the circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation. The mechanisms of this inverse Faraday effect are investigated within the simplest version of the phenomenological dynamic theory for superfluids, namely, the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (GL) model. The light-induced magnetic moment is shown to be strongly affected by the nondissipative oscillatory contribution to the superconducting order parameter dynamics, which appears due to the nonzero imaginary part of the GL relaxation time. The relevance of the latter quantity to the Hall effect in the superconducting state allows us to establish the connection between the direct and inverse Faraday phenomena.
Recently, the use of circularly polarized radiation for on-demand switching between distinct quantum states in a superconducting nanoring exposed to half-quantum magnetic flux has been proposed. However, the effectiveness of this method depends on the system's stability against local variations in the superconducting characteristics of the ring and flux fluctuations. In this study, we utilize numerical simulations based on the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation to evaluate the influence of these inevitable factors on the switching behavior. The results obtained demonstrate that the switching phenomena remain remarkably robust, providing confidence in their experimental observation.
The challenge of controlling the quantum states of matter via light has been at the forefront of modern research on driven quantum matter. We explore the imprinting effects of structured light on superconductors, demonstrating how the quantum numbers of light—specifically spin angular momentum, orbital angular momentum, and radial order—can be transferred to the superconducting (SC) order parameter and control vortex dynamics. Using Laguerre-Gaussian beams, we show that by tuning the quantum numbers and the amplitude of the electric field, it is possible to manipulate a variety of vortex dynamics, including breathing vortex pairs, braiding vortex pairs, vortex droplets, and swirling two-dimensional vortex rings. More complex structures of vortex clusters, such as vortex flake structures, and standing wave motions, also emerge under specific quantum numbers. These results demonstrate the ability to control SC vortex motion and phase structures through structured light, offering potential applications in quantum fluids and optical control of superconducting states. Our findings present a diagram that links light's quantum numbers to the resulting SC vortex dynamics, highlighting the capacity of light to transfer its symmetry onto superconducting condensates. We point out that this approach represents the extension of printing to quantum printing by light in a coherent state of electrons.
The inverse Faraday effect (IFE), where a static magnetization is induced by circularly polarized light, offers a promising route to ultrafast control of spin states. Here we study the IFE in Mott insulators using the Floquet theory. We find two distinct IFE behavior governed by the inversion symmetry. In the Mott insulators with inversion symmetry, we find that the effective magnetic field induced by the IFE couples ferromagnetically to the neighboring spins. While for the Mott insulators without inversion symmetry, the effective magnetic field due to IFE couples antiferromagnetically to the neighboring spins. We apply the theory to the spin-orbit coupled single- and multiorbital Hubbard model that is relevant for the Kitaev quantum spin liquid material and demonstrate that the magnetic interactions can be tuned by light.
Superconducting current instability in thin rings, irradiated by a coherent microwave electromagnetic field, is studied. On the regular circular motion of the Cooper pairs in the supercurrent states the field imposes coherent oscillations of the condensate as a whole. The oscillating condensate should emit photons with the energies determined mainly by the discrete values of the superconducting ring energy. For the first time the probability of the supercurrent decay accompanied by the two- photon emission, is derived. The ring thickness is less than both the field skin-depth and the London penetration depth. Numerical results for the energy-angular distributions of the photons, as well as the waiting time of the stimulated two-photon transition depending on both the ring sizes and fluxoid number in the initial current state, are presented.