Parametric control of Meissner screening in light-driven superconductors

TL;DR

This study explores how periodic light driving affects the Meissner effect in superconductors, revealing that blue-detuned driving enhances conductivity but weakens magnetic screening, with implications for light-controlled superconductivity.

Contribution

It introduces a semiclassical lattice gauge theory approach to analyze parametric light driving effects on superconducting magnetic screening and conductivity.

Findings

Blue-detuned driving enhances low-frequency conductivity.

Magnetic field screening is less effective under blue detuning.

Red detuning tends to enhance magnetic screening.

Abstract

We investigate the Meissner effect in a parametrically driven superconductor using a semiclassical $U(1)$ lattice gauge theory. Specifically, we periodically drive the $z$-axis tunneling, which leads to an enhancement of the imaginary part of the $z$-axis conductivity at low frequencies if the driving frequency is blue-detuned from the plasma frequency. This has been proposed as a possible mechanism for light-enhanced interlayer transport in YBa$_2$C$_3$O$_{7-\delta}$ (YBCO). In contrast to this enhancement of the conductivity, we find that the screening of magnetic fields is less effective than in equilibrium for blue-detuned driving, while it displays a tendency to be enhanced for red-detuned driving.