Theory of absorption spectrum in the nonequilibrium steady state of superconductors under microwave irradiation

Abstract

We discuss the absorption spectrum of dirty s-wave superconductors in the nonequilibrium steady state under a homogeneous and monochromatic microwave. In this state, there exists a finite density of states at lower energies than the superconducting gap, and the distribution function is also defined in this energy region. Because of the reduction of the distribution function below the superconducting gap, the absorption by thermally excited quasiparticles is suppressed in the nonequilibrium state compared with that in the equilibrium case. This is in contrast to the cases of the gap function and the absorption by direct excitation, to which the variation of the distribution function above the superconducting gap mainly contributes. It is also shown that amplitude modes are generated by frequency mixing of the pump wave and the probe wave, and two peaks appear in the absorption spectrum.