Third-harmonic generation in superconductors: Role of quantum geometry in the competition between Higgs mode and quasiparticles

Abstract

Collective modes in superconductors, such as the Higgs mode, offer deep insights into the nature of condensates. Third-harmonic generation (THG) is a primary tool for probing the Higgs mode, but its signal competes with that of quasiparticle excitations depending on impurity scattering rates. In particular, in the clean regime the standard BCS theory generally predicts the dominance of quasiparticle contributions. Here, we propose and demonstrate that the quantum geometry of electronic bands can be a key mechanism governing this competition. By developing a formalism that explicitly incorporates the quantum metric, and applying it to a tunable model of a dispersive-band superconductor, we show that the quantum metric can dramatically amplify the nonlinear light-Higgs coupling by several orders of magnitude. Our results establish that a large quantum metric can cause the Higgs mode to dominate the THG response, resolving the puzzle of Higgs and quasiparticle competition in the clean regime and identifying band geometry as a crucial ingredient for designing and understanding the nonlinear response of superconductors.