Toward the Light‐Operated Superconducting Devices: Circularly Polarized Radiation Manipulates the Current‐Carrying States in Superconducting Rings
Résumé
Abstract The ability to rapidly control and manipulate superconducting states is one of the great challenges of modern condensed matter physics. Circularly polarized radiation interacting with a superconducting condensate acts as an effective magnetic field that can generate supercurrents and DC magnetic moments through the inverse Faraday effect (IFE). Using the time‐dependent Ginzburg–Landau (TDGL) equation formalism, the current‐carrying states of a small superconducting ring illuminated by such radiation is calculated. Numerical simulations demonstrate the possibility to on‐demand switch between current‐carrying states in the superconductor by controlling the helicity of the electromagnetic field polarization. This result opens the way to all‐optical operation of superconducting devices.