Speaker
Description
Ultrafast light fields provide a powerful technique for driving quantum materials far from equilibrium, yet achieving a predictive, microscopic description of their dynamics remains a major challenge. In this talk, I will present a new first-principles framework for optically driven superconductors that directly connects microscopic electron–phonon interactions to time-resolved experimental observables. By solving the Migdal–Eliashberg equations directly on the real-frequency axis and coupling them to nonequilibrium kinetics, we capture the evolution of quasiparticles, phonons, and optical response in driven materials [1, 2].
We demonstrate quantitative agreement with ultrafast optical measurements in superconducting Pb and high-pressure LaH$_10$, accurately reproducing both the amplitude and timescales of the measured transient response across very different electron–phonon regimes. Building on this validation, we apply the method to light-driven systems and identify a potential mechanism for transient superconducting enhancement arising from resonant quasiparticle redistribution [2].
[1] Simon et al., Fast real-axis Eliashberg calculations: Full-bandwidth solutions beyond the constant density of states approximation, arXiv (2026)
[2] Simon et al., Ultrafast dynamics and light-induced superconductivity from first principles, arXiv (2026).