Light-Induced Superconductivity in a Stripe-Ordered Cuprate

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 331; no. 6014; pp. 189 - 191
• Main Authors: Fausti, D, Tobey, R.I, Dean, N, Kaiser, S, Dienst, A, Hoffmann, M.C, Pyon, S, Takayama, T, Takagi, H, Cavalleri, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 14-01-2011; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Chemical compounds; Coherence; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Conductivity; COPPER OXIDE; Cuprates; Doping; Electric fields; ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY; Exact sciences and technology; Femtosecond pulses; Infrared reflection; INTERLAYERS; Optical properties; Optical reflection; Phase diagrams; Physics; PROPERTIES; Properties of type I and type II superconductors; Quantum physics; Reflectance; Stripes; SUPERCONDUCTIVITY; SUPERCONDUCTORS; Transport; Phase diagrams; Charge ordering; Magnetic ordering; Superconductivity; Photoinduced effect; Mid infrared radiation; Time resolved spectra; Cuprates; Time dependence; Reflection spectrum; Josephson effect; Plasma resonance; High-Tc superconductors; Plasmons
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1197294

One of the most intriguing features of some high-temperature cuprate superconductors is the interplay between one-dimensional "striped" spin order and charge order, and superconductivity. We used mid-infrared femtosecond pulses to transform one such stripe-ordered compound, nonsuperconducting La₁.₆₇₅Eu₀.₂Sr₀.₁₂₅CuO₄, into a transient three-dimensional superconductor. The emergence of coherent interlayer transport was evidenced by the prompt appearance of a Josephson plasma resonance in the c-axis optical properties. An upper limit for the time scale needed to form the superconducting phase is estimated to be 1 to 2 picoseconds, which is significantly faster than expected. This places stringent new constraints on our understanding of stripe order and its relation to superconductivity.