| This contribution will focus on the possibility of controlling the macroscopic properties of underdoped cuprates by infrared laser pulses. Due to the presence of a competing stripe order, the phase diagram of Lesco (La1.675Er0.2Sr0.125CuO) is characterized, for suboptimal doping levels, by a strong quenching of the superconductive temperature (Tc<4K). Our results show that, by means of selective excitation of the vibrational modes in the CuO planes, the charge ordered Lesco is brought within a few picoseconds into an unconventional highly conducting metastable phase not reachable under equilibrium conditions. The superconducting nature of the metastable phase is revealed by the presence of a Josephson Plasma Resonance, a fingerprint of superconductivity in layered compounds. |
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