Photodynamic melting of phase-reversed charge stripes and enhanced condensation

TL;DR

This paper investigates how photoirradiation can induce melting of charge stripe order in a bosonic system, leading to enhanced superfluidity and transport properties, offering insights into controlling competing phases in quantum materials.

Contribution

It demonstrates that tailored photoirradiation can selectively melt charge order and enhance superfluid response in an interacting bosonic system, revealing a new method to control quantum phases out of equilibrium.

Findings

Photoirradiation induces melting of charge stripe order.

Enhanced superfluid response observed after photoirradiation.

Out-of-equilibrium dynamics reveal potential for phase control.

Abstract

The interplay between charge stripes and pairing has long been a subject of scrutiny in a broad class of unconventional superconductors, as in some cases it is unclear whether this interplay benefits the ensuing superfluidity. Experiments that explore the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of these systems aim to tip the balance toward one phase or the other by selectively coupling to relevant modes. Leveraging the fact that competition between stripes and pairing is not exclusive to fermionic systems, we explore the photoirradiation dynamics of interacting hardcore bosons, in which density-wave phase-reversal melting leads to enhanced phase-coherent transport response, as quantified by the dynamic amplification of both the zero-momentum occupancy and the condensate fraction, as well as finite out-of-equilibrium charge stiffness and superfluid weight, for a given system size. Our results, obtained using unbiased methods for an interacting system on a ladder geometry, demonstrate how one can engineer time-dependent perturbations to release suppressed orders, potentially providing insight into the underlying mechanism in related experiments.