Light-induced coherence in an atom-cavity system

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how light can dynamically control coherence in an atom-cavity system by suppressing density wave order, providing insights into mechanisms similar to light-induced superconductivity.

Contribution

It introduces a method to manipulate competing orders in a cold atom system using light-induced temporal modulation, revealing a new way to control quantum phases.

Findings

Light-induced suppression of density wave order

Restoration of coherence via pump modulation

Analogous mechanism to light-induced superconductivity

Abstract

We demonstrate light-induced formation of coherence in a cold atomic gas system that utilizes the suppression of a competing density wave (DW) order. The condensed atoms are placed in an optical cavity and pumped by an external optical standing wave, which induces a long-range interaction mediated by photon scattering and a resulting DW order above a critical pump strength. We show that light-induced temporal modulation of the pump wave can suppress this DW order and restore coherence. This establishes a foundational principle of dynamical control of competing orders analogous to a hypothesized mechanism for light-induced superconductivity in high-$T_c$ cuprates.