Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Abstract-Terahertz Second-Harmonic Generation from Lightwave Acceleration of Symmetry-Breaking Nonlinear Supercurrents


C. Vaswani, M. Mootz, C. Sundahl, D. H. Mudiyanselage, J. H. Kang, X. Yang, D. Cheng, C. Huang, R. H. J. Kim, Z. Liu, L. Luo, I. E. Perakis, C. B. Eom, and J. Wang


https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.207003

We report terahertz (THz) light-induced second harmonic generation, in superconductors with inversion symmetry that forbid even-order nonlinearities. The THz second harmonic emission vanishes above the superconductor critical temperature and arises from precession of twisted Anderson pseudospins at a multicycle, THz driving frequency that is not allowed by equilibrium symmetry. We explain the microscopic physics by a dynamical symmetry breaking principle at sub-THz-cycle by using quantum kinetic modeling of the interplay between strong THz-lightwave nonlinearity and pulse propagation. The resulting nonzero integrated pulse area inside the superconductor leads to light-induced nonlinear supercurrents due to subcycle Cooper pair acceleration, in contrast to dc-biased superconductors, which can be controlled by the band structure and THz driving field below the superconducting gap.
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