The interplay of phonon and exciton-mediated superconductivity in hybrid semiconductor-superconductor structures

TL;DR

This paper predicts that the critical temperature of a BCS superconductor can be significantly increased by a bosonic condensate of exciton-polaritons, with potential for experimental realization in hybrid structures.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of exciton-polariton condensates enhancing superconductivity and analyzes the dependence on cutoff frequency ratios.

Findings

Critical temperature can be strongly enhanced by exciton-polariton condensates.

The effect depends on the ratio of phonon to exciton-polariton cutoff frequencies.

Designs for hybrid structures suitable for experimental observation are discussed.

Abstract

We predict a strong enhancement of the critical temperature in a conventional Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superconductor in the presence of a bosonic condensate of exciton-polaritons. The effect depends strongly on the ratio of the cutoff frequencies for phonon and exciton-polariton mediated BCS superconductivity, respectively. We also discuss a possible design of hybrid semiconductor-superconductor structures suitable for the experimental observation of such an effect.