Time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model for light-induced superconductivity in the cuprate LESCO

Cavalleri and coworkers have discovered evidence of light-induced superconductivity and related phenomena in several different materials. Here we suggest that some features may be naturally interpreted using a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model. In particular, we focus on the lifetime of the transient state in La$_{1.675}$Eu$_{0.2}$Sr$_{0.125}$CuO$_4$ (LESCO$_{1/8}$), which is remarkably long below about 25 K, but exhibits different behavior at higher temperature.