Melting the Superconducting State in the Electron Doped Cuprate Pr${}_{1.85}$Ce${}_{0.15}$CuO${}_{4-\hat{I}´}$ with Intense near-infrared and Terahertz Pulses

Abstract

We studied the superconducting (SC) state depletion process in an electron doped cuprate Pr${}_{1.85}$Ce${}_{0.15}$CuO${}_{4-\hat{I}´}$ by pumping with near-infrared (NIR) and narrow-band THz pulses. When pumping with THz pulses tuned just above the SC gap, we find the absorbed energy density required to deplete superconductivity, $A_{dep}$, matches the thermodynamic condensation energy. Contrary, by NIR pumping $A_{dep}$ is an order of magnitude higher, despite the fact that the SC gap is much smaller than the energy of relevant bosonic excitations. The result implies that only a small subset of bosons contribute to pairing.