Photon echo from Maki-Thompson interference in a fluctuating s-wave superconductor

Abstract

We study theoretically the nonlinear optical response of a fluctuating s-wave superconductor driven by two successive terahertz pulses. We show that the response exhibits a photon echo signal that arises from the quantum interference between the time-reversed electron and hole trajectories in the Maki-Thompson process. By contrast, the transport of the fluctuating Cooper pairs responsible for the Aslamazov-Larkin conductivity does not generate an echo. The photon echo signal can be readily measured using terahertz two-dimensional coherent spectroscopy, highlighting its potential to distinguish different fluctuation conductivity mechanisms.