Non-thermal pathways to non-equilibrium control of correlated quantum materials

Leveraging coherent light-matter interaction in solids is a promising new direction towards control and functionalization of quantum materials, to potentially realize regimes inaccessible in equilibrium and stabilize new or useful states of matter. With time-resolved experiments taking rapid strides in the transient control of single-particle properties, a key question concerns the induction of many-body states far from equilibrium. In this talk, I will discuss avenues and challenges in how tailored light fields can provide a non-thermal handle to manipulate, induce and probe novel electronic or magnetic phases in strongly correlated materials. We will show how driving the strongly spin-orbit coupled proximal Kitaev magnet α-RuCl₃ with light or THz radiation can give rise to a ligand-mediated magneto-electric effect and nudge the material towards the elusive Kitaev quantum spin liquid, with the transient competition of magnetic orders observable via pump-probe spectroscopy. I will then argue that heating and time scales of coherent manipulation can be understood in a flow renormalization framework for driven systems, in which dynamical regimes at intermediate times are represented as unstable fixed points of the flow, establishing a new tool to study long-lived prethermal quantum phases.