Photodynamic melting of phase-reversed charge stripes and enhanced condensation

The interplay between charge stripes and pairing is a longstanding point of scrutiny in a broad class of unconventional superconductors since, in some cases, it is unclear whether their intertwining benefits the ensuing superfluidity. Experiments that explore the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of these systems try to tip the balance in favor of one phase or the other by selective coupling to relevant modes. Leveraging the fact that competition between stripes and pairing is not exclusive to fermionic systems, we explore the photoirradiation dynamics of interacting hardcore bosons, in which density wave phase-reversal melting gives rise to enhanced superfluid properties, quantified by the dynamic amplification of zero-momentum occupancy and charge stiffness. Our results, obtained using unbiased methods for an interacting system on a ladder geometry, demonstrate how one can engineer time-dependent perturbations to release suppressed orders, potentially providing insight into the underlying mechanism in related experiments.