Real time measurement of the emergence of superconducting order in a high temperature superconductor

Abstract

Systems which rapidly evolve through symmetry-breaking transitions on timescales comparable to the fluctuation timescale of the single-particle excitations may behave very differently than under controlled near-ergodic conditions. A real-time investigation with high temporal resolution may reveal new insights into the ordering through the transition that are not available in static experiments. We present an investigation of the system trajectory through a normal-to-superconductor transition in a prototype high-temperature superconducting cuprate in which such a situation occurs. Using a multiple pulse femtosecond spectroscopy technique we measure the system trajectory and time-evolution of the single-particle excitations through the transition in La${}_{1.9}$Sr${}_{0.1}$CuO${}_4$ and compare the data to a simulation based on time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory, using laser excitation fluence as an adjustable parameter controlling the quench conditions in both experiment and theory. The comparison reveals the presence of significant superconducting fluctuations which precede the transition on short timescales. By including superconducting fluctuations as a seed for the growth of superconducting order we can obtain a satisfactory agreement of the theory with the experiment. Remarkably, the pseudogap excitations apparently play no role in this process.

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Nanoscale-femtosecond dielectric response of Mott insulators captured by two-colour near-field ultrafast electron microscopy
• Dynamics of the superconducting order parameter through ultrafast normal-to-superconducting phase transition in Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$ from multi-pulse polarization-resolved transient optical reflectivity
• Ultrafast destruction and recovery of the spin density wave order in iron based pnictides: a multi-pulse optical study
• Visible pump -- mid infrared pump -- broadband probe: development and characterization of a three-pulse setup for single-shot ultrafast spectroscopy at 50 kHz
• Nonequilibrium dynamics of superconductivity in the attractive Hubbard model
• Inter-site pair superconductivity: origins and recent validation experiments
• Modeling the relaxation processes of photoexcited solids: A short review