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Direct Picosecond Measurement Of Photoinduced Cooper Pair Breaking In Lead, John F. Federici, Benjamin I. Greene, Peter N. Saeta, Douglas R. Dykaar, F. Sharifi, R. C. Dynes
Direct Picosecond Measurement Of Photoinduced Cooper Pair Breaking In Lead, John F. Federici, Benjamin I. Greene, Peter N. Saeta, Douglas R. Dykaar, F. Sharifi, R. C. Dynes
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We report on a direct kinetic measurement of Cooper-pair breaking in superconducting lead. A 100-fs pulse of visible light was used to excite a thin-film lead sample, while the Cooper-pair density was optically probed using an ultrashort pulse of broadband far-infrared radiation. Subsequent to the absorption of the visible light, a rapid (ps) change in the far-infrared optical transmission was observed, corresponding to the breaking of Cooper pairs and the collapse of the superconducting gap.