Light-induced Superconductivity

Professor Andrea Cavalleri, founding director of the MPSD, is to be honored with the 2024 EPS Europhysics Prize by the European Physical Society. The EPS is awarding the Prize in recognition of his “pioneering studies of photo-induced emergent phases of quantum materials: from enhanced superconductivity to the control of materials topology”. more

Researchers at the MPSD have shown that a previously demonstrated ability to turn on superconductivity with a laser beam can be integrated on a chip, opening up a route toward opto-electronic applications.  more

Researchers from the Cavalleri group have discovered a far more efficient way to create a previously observed metastable, superconducting-like state in K₃C₆₀ using laser light. Their work has appeared in Nature Physics. more

Researchers from the Cavalleri group report in PNAS that superconducting ‘stripes’ in certain copper-based compounds may lead to a break in the material’s crystal symmetry, thus resulting in anomalous emission of terahertz radiation. more

MPSD researchers discover a long-lived superconducting state in K₃C₆₀ at a temperature five times higher than the one at which superconductivity sets in without photoexcitation. This metastable state, produced with a new type of laser, lasts nearly 10.000 times longer than previously achieved. more