Space-time crystalline order of a high-critical-temperature superconductor with intrinsic Josephson junctions

Abstract

We theoretically demonstrate that the high-critical-temperature superconductor Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+x}$ (BSCCO) is a natural candidate for the recently envisioned classical space-time crystal. BSCCO intrinsically forms a stack of Josephson junctions. Under a periodic parametric modulation of the Josephson critical current density, the Josephson currents develop coupled space-time crystalline order, breaking the continuous translational symmetry in both space and time. The modulation frequency and amplitude span a (nonequilibrium) phase diagram for a so-defined spatiotemporal order parameter, which displays rigid pattern formation within a particular region of the phase diagram. Based on our calculations using representative material properties, we propose a laser-modulation experiment to realize the predicted space-time crystalline behavior. Our findings bring new insight into the nature of space-time crystals and, more generally, into nonequilibrium driven condensed matter systems.

12 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Absence of Quantum Time Crystals
• Hot spots and waves in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 intrinsic Josephson junction stacks -a study by Low Temperature Scanning Laser Microscopy
• Thermal and electromagnetic properties of Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_8$ intrinsic Josephson junction stacks studied via one-dimensional coupled sine-Gordon equations

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Photo-induced superconducting-like response in strongly correlated systems