Higgs oscillations in time-resolved optical conductivity

Abstract

Driving superconductors out of equilibrium is a promising avenue to study their equilibrium properties as well as to control the superconducting state. Non-equilibrium superconductors are often studied using time resolved optical conductivity measurements. Thus, the characterization of a superconducting state in a pump driven non-equilibrium state requires careful attention in the time domain. We calculate time-resolved optical conductivity of a pumped superconducting state using a non-equilibrium Keldysh approach. Through functional derivation, the optical conductivity is obtained with full vertex corrections and used to characterize the transient superconducting state. The transient optical conductivity shows the suppression of the superconducting order parameter in the time domain. The subsequent recovery of the order parameter exhibits oscillatory behavior that corresponds to the Higgs amplitude mode, and may be seen in several parts of the spectrum.