Time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model for light-induced superconductivity in the cuprate LESCO_1/8

Cavalleri and coworkers have discovered evidence of light-induced superconductivity and related phenomena in several different materials [1]. Here we suggest that some features may be naturally interpreted using a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model. In particular, we focus on the lifetime of the transient state in La_1.675Eu_0.2Sr_0.125CuO₄ (LESCO_1/8), which is remarkably long below about 25 K, but exhibits different behavior at higher temperature. A reciprocity inherent in the free energy makes the superconducting phase just as effective in blocking the stripe phase as vice-versa, and in the simulations at low temperature (coherent 3-dimensional) superconductivity persists as a robust metastable phase for an indefinitely long period of time after the femtosecond-scale laser pulse has destroyed the (coherent 3-dimensional) stripe phase. On the other hand, as the temperature, stoichiometry, and other parameters vary, there may be no ordered phase, or either, or both coexisting, as is consistent with a large body of experimental and theoretical work.
[1] Andrea Cavalleri, ``Photo-induced superconductivity'', Contemporary Physics 59, 31 (2018).