2023/01/20 by Rowe, E., Yuan, B., Buzzi, M. +8
#FOS: Physical sciences #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) #Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2301.08633
Photo-excitation at terahertz and mid-infrared frequencies has emerged as a new way to manipulate functionalities in quantum materials, in some cases creating non-equilibrium phases that have no equilibrium analogue. In K3C60, a metastable zero-resistance phase was documented with optical properties and pressure dependences compatible with non-equilibrium high temperature superconductivity. Here, we report the discovery of a dominant energy scale for this phenomenon, along with the demonstration of a giant increase in photo-susceptibility near 10 THz excitation frequency. At these drive frequencies a metastable superconducting-like phase is observed up to room temperature for fluences as low as ~400 μJ/cm2. These findings shed light on the microscopic mechanism underlying photo-induced superconductivity. They also trace a path towards steady state operation, currently limited by the availability of a suitable high-repetition rate optical source at these frequencies.