Nonlinear optical responses in noncentrosymmetric superconductors

Abstract

The unique nonreciprocal responses of superconductors, which stem from the Cooper pairs' quantum condensation, have been attracting attention. Recently, theories of the second-order nonlinear response in noncentrosymmetric superconductors were formulated based on the Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory. In this paper, we study the mechanism and condition for second-order optical responses of time-reversal symmetric superconductors. The numerical results show the characteristic photocurrent and second harmonic generation in the superconducting state. However, the superconductivity-induced nonlinear optical responses disappear under some conditions on pair potential. We show that the coexistence of intraband and interband pairing is necessary for the second-order superconducting optical responses. In addition, the superconducting Berry curvature factor, which is related to a component of Berry curvature in the superconducting state, is essential for the nonlinear responses. Thus, we derived the microscopic conditions where the superconducting nonlinear response appears.