Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: We demonstrate how virtual scattering of laser photons inside a cavity via two-photon processes can induce controllable long-range electron interactions in two-dimensional materials. We show that laser light that is red (blue) detuned from the cavity yields attractive (repulsive) interactions whose strength is proportional to the laser intensity. Furthermore, we find that the interactions are not screened effectively except at very low frequencies. For realistic cavity parameters, laser-induced heating of the electrons by inelastic photon scattering is suppressed and coherent electron interactions dominate. When the interactions are attractive, they cause an instability in the Cooper channel at a temperature proportional to the square root of the driving intensity. Our results provide a novel route for engineering electron interactions in a wide range of two-dimensional materials including AB-stacked bilayer graphene and the conducting interface between LaAlO_{3} and SrTiO_{3}.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: G1230266125, G1292459117, G213344254, G3207356259, EXC 2056: CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter, G393177772, Designing Out-of-Equilibrium Many-Body Quantum Systems, G4675369358, G4760961572, G5631081224, G5692702728, G5702163051, G6184482982, EXC 1074: Hamburger Zentrum für ultraschnelle Beobachtung (CUI): Struktur, Dynamik und Kontrolle von Materie auf atomarer Skala
OpenAlex ID: W3011520529