Photo-induced superconductivity in semiconductors

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that optically pumped semiconductors can exhibit superconductivity under specific conditions, with potential for high-temperature applications and robustness to various interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework showing how light-driven semiconductors can become superconducting, including models with reservoirs and dissipation mechanisms.

Findings

Superconductivity can be induced in two-band semiconductors with optical pumping.

The superconducting gap can be computed and is robust to high temperatures.

Both attractive and repulsive interactions can facilitate the mechanism.

Abstract

We show that optically pumped semiconductors can exhibit superconductivity. We illustrate this phenomenon in the case of a two-band semiconductor tunnel-coupled to broad-band reservoirs and driven by a continuous wave laser. More realistically, we also show that superconductivity can be induced in a two-band semiconductor interacting with a broad-spectrum light source. We furthermore discuss the case of a three-band model in which the middle band replaces the broad-band reservoirs as the source of dissipation. In all three cases, we derive the simple conditions on the band structure, electron-electron interaction, and hybridization to the reservoirs that enable superconductivity. We compute the finite superconducting gap and argue that the mechanism can be induced through both attractive and repulsive interactions and is robust to high temperatures.