Kapitza-Dirac interference of Higgs waves in superconductors

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method to control and observe Higgs modes and vortex behavior in superconductors using structured light, revealing interference effects and coupling mechanisms that advance understanding of nonequilibrium superconductivity.

Contribution

It proposes a Kapitza-Dirac-like effect for Higgs waves in superconductors, demonstrating light-induced vortex lattices can manipulate collective excitations.

Findings

Higgs waves scatter off vortex lattices creating interference patterns.

Vortices enable linear coupling between Higgs mode and electromagnetic field.

The framework allows probing nonequilibrium superconductivity with high spatial and temporal resolution.

Abstract

We present a novel framework for controlling Higgs mode and vortex dynamics in superconductors using structured light. We propose a phenomenon analog of the Kapitza-Dirac effect in superconductors, where Higgs waves scatter off light-induced vortex lattices, generating interference patterns akin to matter wave diffraction. We also find that the vortices enable the linear coupling of Higgs mode to the electromagnetic field. This interplay between light-engineered Higgs excitations and emergent vortex textures opens a pathway to probe nonequilibrium superconductivity with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. Our results bridge quantum optics and condensed matter physics, offering new examples of quantum printing where one uses structured light to manipulate the collective modes in correlated quantum fluids.