  Motivated by the generation by optical pulses of non-thermal distributions of
nuclear spins in quantum dots we investigate the effect of optical pulses
applied to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superconductors. Using
time-dependent mean-field theory formulated with Anderson pseudospins, we study
the electronic configurations and the energy deposited in the system by optical
pulses. The pulses are included by Peierls substitution and we study short
rectangular pulses as well as idealized $\delta$ pulses. Already a few and even
a single pulse generates highly non-trivial distributions of electron
expectation values which we simulate numerically and explain analytically based
on the linearization of the equations of motion. These results suggest so far
unexplored experimental possibilities for the optical control of
superconducting states.
