Michael Sentef - Light-enhanced electron-phonon coupling from nonlinear electron-phonon coupling

In light of recent experiments suggesting light-induced superconductivity [1] as well as light-enhanced electron-lattice coupling [2] for strongly driven IR phonons, it is natural to ask for a minimal and generic theoretical model that predicts such enhancement effects of important couplings in different material classes. One idea that comes to mind is nonlinear electron-phonon coupling [3,4]. A quadratic coupling term of the form " g₂ n_el x²_IR " is generically the lowest order symmetry-allowed direct coupling of an IR-active phonon coordinate x_IR to the electronic density n_el in systems with inversion symmetry. In this talk I will present model evidence for light-enhanced electron-phonon coupling and light-induced effective attraction between electrons based on nonlinear electron-phonon coupling [3], the latter of which was already discussed in a similar context in [4]. [1] M. Mitrano et al., Nature 530, 461 (2016) [2] E. Pomarico et al., Phys. Rev. B 95, 024304 (2017) [3] M. A. Sentef, arXiv: 1702.00952 [4] D. M. Kennes et al., Nature Physics (2017) , doi:10.1038/nphys4024, arXiv:1609.03802