Ultrafast mid-infrared response of YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-delta)

RA Kaindl; M Woerner; T Elsaesser; DC Smith; JF Ryan; GA Farnan; MP McCurry; DG Walmsley

doi:10.1126/science.287.5452.470

Ultrafast mid-infrared response of YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-delta)

Science. 2000 Jan 21;287(5452):470-3. doi: 10.1126/science.287.5452.470.

Authors

RA Kaindl¹, M Woerner, T Elsaesser, DC Smith, JF Ryan, GA Farnan, MP McCurry, DG Walmsley

Affiliation

¹ Max-Born-Institut fur Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie, D-12489 Berlin, Germany. Department of Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK. Department of Pure and Applied Physics, Queen's University of Belfast.

PMID: 10642545
DOI: 10.1126/science.287.5452.470

Abstract

Optical spectra of high-transition-temperature superconductors in the mid-infrared display a gap of in-plane conductivity whose role for superconductivity remains unresolved. Femtosecond measurements of the mid-infrared reflectivity of YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-delta) after nonequilibrium optical excitation are used to demonstrate the ultrafast fill-in of this gap and reveal two gap constituents: a picosecond recovery of the superconducting condensate in underdoped and optimally doped material and, in underdoped YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-delta), an additional subpicosecond component related to pseudogap correlations. The temperature-dependent amplitudes of both contributions correlate with the antiferromagnetic 41-millielectronvolt peak in neutron scattering, supporting the coupling between charges and spin excitations.