Karl Franzens University Graz
Graz University of Technology
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Karl Franzens University Graz | Graz University of Technology | |
Probing dynamical nonlinearities in a Floquet-Hubbard chain Intense ultrashort off-resonant fields can hybridize with material excitations, giving rise to interesting light-driven phenomena such as transient superconducting-like phases, charge ordering, and excitonic condensation. A particularly intriguing platform for such studies are low-dimensional Mott insulators, where light-matter interaction is predicted to modify effective many-body interactions and lead to exotic nonequilibrium ordering phenomena such as eta-pairing superconductivity. Here, we investigate a paradigmatic strongly correlated quantum chain, the quasi-one-dimensional cuprate compound Sr2CuO3. We find that intense mid-infrared excitation coherently dresses the many-body states underlying its large optical nonlinearity, resulting in a dramatic transient reshaping of the third emission spectrum. Combining exact numerical calculations with Floquet theory analysis, we attribute the dynamical modification of the harmonic emission to the interference of new light-induced quantum pathways reflecting the dynamical symmetry of the dressed many-body states. Our work marks the realization of a Floquet many-body phase in a condensed matter setting and provides a practical avenue towards the coherent manipulation of optical nonlinearities, as well as engineering macroscopically coherent electronic phases in complex materials. |