Energy dependence of the electron-boson coupling strength in the electron-doped cuprate superconductor Pr1.85Ce0.15CuO4−δ


Energy dependence of the electron-boson coupling strength in the electron-doped cuprate superconductor Pr1.85Ce0.15CuO4−δ

Beck, M.; Klammer, M.; Rousseau, I.; Obergfell, M.; Leiderer, P.; Helm, M.; Kabanov, V. V.; Diamant, I.; Rabinowicz, A.; Dagan, Y.; Demsar, J.

The quest for a pairing boson in cuprate high-temperature superconductors is one of the outstanding Tasks of solid-state physics. Numerous time-resolved studies of pair breaking, related to pairing by time-reversal symmetry, have been performed using femtosecond optical pulses. By considering energy Relaxation pathways between charge, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom, evidence for both phonon and antiferromagnetic fluctuationmediated pairing has been obtained. Here we present a study of the superconducting-state depletion process in an electron-doped cuprate Pr1.85Ce0.15CuO4−δ , where the superconducting gap is smaller than the energy of relevant bosonic excitations. When pumping with above-gap terahertz pulses, we find that the absorbed energy density required to deplete superconductivity, Adep, matches the thermodynamic condensation energy. On the contrary, by near-infrared pumping, Adep is an order of Magnitude higher, as in the case of hole-doped, large-gap cuprates. These results imply that only a small subset of bosons, which are generated during the relaxation of optically excited carriers, contributes to pairing. This observation implies that, contrary to the common assumptions, electron-boson coupling in cuprates is strongly energy dependent.

Keywords: superconductor; terahertz; free electron laser

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Publ.-Id: 25089