"Ultrafast control of electronic interactions in low-dimensional cuprate superconductors"

Intense ultrashort electromagnetic fields are an increasingly important tool to realize and control novel emergent phases in quantum materials. Among a variety of nonthermal excitation pathways, a particularly intriguing route is represented by the direct light-engineering of effective many-body interactions, such as electron hopping amplitudes and electron-electron repulsion. Achieving a light-induced dynamical renormalization of the screened onsite Coulomb repulsion (“Hubbard U”) has far-reaching implications for the ultrafast manipulation of superconductivity and magnetism in the solid state. In this talk, I will discuss the light-induced renormalization of the Hubbard U in two cuprate superconductors – the quasi-1D compound Sr₂CuO_3+d, and the quasi-2D La_2-xBa_xCuO₄ – and discuss its implications for the control of superconductivity, magnetism, as well as to the realization of other long-range-ordered phases in light-driven quantum materials.