Mechanisms for Long-Lived, Photo-induced Superconductivity in Alkali-Doped Fullerides

Advances in the control of intense, far-infrared light has led to the striking discovery of optical signatures of long-lived, nonequilibrium superconductivity in K3C60 at 100K—five times above the equilibrium Tc in K3C60. Motivated by these experimental developments in photo-induced superconductivity, we investigate phononic mechanisms for long-lived and thermodynamically metastable photo-induced superconductivity far above Tc in a ab-initio inspired minimal model for alkali-dope fulleride superconductors. In particular, we find that optically driving specific, IR active Jahn-Teller modes in alkali-doped fullerides can induce superconductivity that lasts parametrically longer than the ring-down time of the driven phonons, providing a novel, microscopic framework for long-lived superconductivity. Furthermore, our work provides a natural explanation for the resonances in the efficiency of inducing superconducting signatures, recently discovered in K3C60.