Higgs time crystal in a high-T_c superconductor

2020/04/30 by Guido Homann, Jayson G. Cosme, Ludwig Mathey · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.supr-con

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevresearch.2.043214

published as Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 043214 (2020) · 10 pages, 5 figures + Supplemental Material

arxiv created 2020/11/12 · arxiv updated 2021/06/04

Abstract

We propose to induce a time crystalline state in a high-T_c superconductor, by optically driving a sum resonance of the Higgs mode and a Josephson plasma mode. The generic cubic process that couples these fundamental excitations converts driving of the sum resonance into simultaneous resonant driving of both modes, resulting in an incommensurate subharmonic motion. We use a numerical implementation of a semi-classical driven-dissipative lattice gauge theory on a three-dimensional layered lattice, which models the geometry of cuprate superconductors, to demonstrate the robustness of this motion against thermal fluctuations. We demonstrate this light-induced time crystalline phase for mono- and bilayer systems and show that this order can be detected for pulsed driving under realistic technological conditions.

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