Cavity-altered superconductivity

ORAL

Abstract

Is it feasible to alter the ground state properties of a material by engineering its electromagnetic environment? In this work, we devised and implemented a novel platform to realize cavity-altered materials. We interfaced hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) with the molecular superconductor κ-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu[N(CN)2]Br (κ-ET). The frequencies of infrared (IR) hyperbolic modes of hBN match the IR-active carbon-carbon stretching molecular resonance of κ-ET implicated in superconductivity. Nano-optical data confirm the presence of resonant coupling between the hBN hyperbolic cavity modes and the carbon-carbon stretching mode in κ-ET. Meissner effect measurements via magnetic force microscopy (MFM) demonstrate a strong suppression of superfluid density near the hBN/κ-ET interface. These observations suggest that hBN/κ-ET realizes a cavity-altered superconducting ground state. Our work highlights the potential of dark cavities devoid of external photons for engineering electronic ground state properties of complex quantum materials.

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Publication: arXiv:2505.17378

Presenters

  • Itai Keren

    • Columbia University

Authors

  • Itai Keren

    • Columbia University

  • Tatiana A Webb

    • Columbia University
    • Barnard College

  • Shuai Zhang

    • Columbia University

  • Jikai Xu

    • Columbia University

  • Dihao Sun

    • Columbia University

  • Brian Sae Yoon Kim

    • Columbia University

  • Dongbin Shin

    • Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology

  • Giancarlo Pereira

    • Columbia University

  • Takuya Okugawa

    • University of RWTH-Aachen University

  • Marios H Michael

    • Max Planck Institute for the Structure & Dynamics of Matter

  • Cory R Dean

    • Columbia University

  • Emil V Vinas Boström

    • Max Planck for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter
    • Max Planck Institute for the Structure & Dynamics of Matter
    • Max Planck Institute for Structure and Dynamics of Matter

  • Michael A Sentef

    • University of Bremen

  • Dante M Kennes

    • RWTH Aachen University

  • Andrew J Millis

    • Columbia University
    • Flatiron Institute, Columbia University

  • Andrea Cavalleri

    • Max Planck Institute for the Structure & Dynamics of Matter

  • Rohit P Prasankumar

    • Intellectual Ventures Management, LLC

  • Angel Rubio

    • Max Planck Institute for the Structure & Dynamics of Matter
    • Max Planck Institute for the Structure & Dynamics of Matter; Simons Foundation (Flatiron Institute)

  • Abhay Pasupathy

    • Columbia University
    • Columbia University/Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Dimitri Basov

    • Columbia University