Martin Eckstein
Laser excitation in solids can induce long-lived non-equilibrium phases, which can be stabilized by non-thermal electron distributions (photo-doping) or non-thermal fluctuations of different order parameters. Examples include eta-pairing superconductivity in laser-excited Mott insulators, or hidden spin and orbital orders. Despite the fruitful experimental exploration, theoretical studies on microscopic models face the challenge of exponentially separated time scales. We address this difficulty by introducing a steady-state description of photo-doped Mott insulators using an open-system setup, where the photo-doped state is stabilized as a non-equilibrium steady-state by a weak external driving. Taking advantage of the stationarity, efficient numerical tools within steady-state Dynamical Mean-Field Theory become available.