Light-enhanced electron-phonon coupling from nonlinear electron-phonon coupling

Abstract: We investigate an exact nonequilibrium solution of a two-site electron-phonon model, where an infrared-active phonon that is nonlinearly coupled to the electrons is driven by a laser field. The time-resolved electronic spectrum shows coherence-incoherence spectral weight transfer, a clear signature of light-enhanced electron-phonon coupling. The present study is motivated by recent evidence for enhanced electron-phonon coupling in pump-probe TeraHertz and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy in bilayer graphene when driven near resonance with an infrared-active phonon mode [E.~Pomarico et al., Phys.~Rev.~B 95, 024304 (2017)], and by a theoretical study suggesting that transient electronic attraction arises from nonlinear electron-phonon coupling [D.~M.~Kennes et al., Nature Physics (2017), 10.1038/nphys4024]. We show that a linear scaling of light-enhanced electron-phonon coupling with the pump field intensity emerges, in accordance with a time-nonlocal self-energy based on a mean-field decoupling using quasi-classical phonon coherent states. Finally we demonstrate that this leads to enhanced double occupancies in accordance with an effective electron-electron attraction. Our results suggest that materials with strong phonon nonlinearities provide an ideal playground to achieve light-enhanced electron-phonon coupling and possibly light-induced superconductivity.