Non-thermal superconductivity in photo-doped multi-orbital Hubbard systems

Abstract

Superconductivity in laser-excited correlated electron systems has attracted considerable interest due to reports of light-induced superconducting-like states. Here we explore the possibility of non-thermal superconducting order in strongly interacting multi-orbital Hubbard systems, using non-equilibrium dynamical mean field theory. We find that a staggered $\eta$-type superconducting phase can be realized on a bipartite lattice in the high photo-doping regime, if the effective temperature of the photo-carriers is sufficiently low. The $\eta$ superconducting state is stabilized by Hund coupling - a positive Hund coupling favors orbital-singlet spin-triplet $\eta$ pairing, whereas a negative Hund coupling stabilizes spin-singlet orbital-triplet $\eta$ pairing.