Cavity-altered superconductivity
Is it feasible to alter the ground-state properties of a material by engineering its electromagnetic environment? Inspired by theoretical predictions<sup>1-12</sup>, experimental realizations of such cavity-controlled properties without optical excitation are beginning to emerge<sup>13-19</sup>. Here we devised and implemented a new platform to realize cavity-altered materials. Single crystals of hyperbolic van der Waals (vdW) compounds provide a resonant electromagnetic environment with enhanced density of photonic states and prominent mode confinement<sup>20-24</sup>. We interfaced hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) with the molecular superconductor κ-(BEDT-TTF)<sub>2</sub>Cu[N(CN)<sub>2</sub>]Br (κ-ET). The frequencies of infrared hyperbolic modes (HMs) of hBN (refs. <sup>25,26</sup>) match the infrared-active carbon-carbon (C=C) stretching molecular resonance of κ-ET implicated in superconductivity<sup>27</sup>. Nano-optical data supported by first-principles molecular Langevin dynamics simulations confirm the presence of resonant coupling between the hBN hyperbolic cavity modes and the C=C stretching mode in κ-ET. Meissner-effect measurements using magnetic force microscopy (MFM) demonstrate a strong suppression of superfluid density near the hBN/κ-ET interface. Non-resonant control heterostructures, including RuCl<sub>3</sub>/κ-ET and hBN/Bi<sub>2</sub>Sr<sub>2</sub>CaCu<sub>2</sub>O<sub>8+x</sub> (BSCCO), do not show the pronounced superfluid suppression. 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.
Authors
- Rohit P. Prasankumar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0902-2831)
- M. Buzzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7325-4632)
- Matthew Julian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3643-3484)
- Kazushi Kanoda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5992-0125)
- Matthew Cothrine (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9026-0241)
- Tatiana A. Webb (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5694-2863)
- Brian S. Y. Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3024-4220)
- Cory R. Dean (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2967-5960)
- Andrew J. Millis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9413-6344)
- Takuya Okugawa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5595-5814)
- Michael A. Sentef (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7946-0282)
- Dante M. Kennes
- Songtian S. Zhang
- Abhay N. Pasupathy
- Jikai Xu
- D. N. Basov
- Shuai Zhang
- Juntao Yao
- Dihao Sun
- Dongbin Shin
- Genda Gu
- James H. Edgar
- Itai Keren
- Andrea Cavalleri
- David Mandrus
- Giancarlo Pereira
- Qiang Li
- Stuart Wolf
- Angel Rubio
- Junhe Zhang
- Kazuya Miyagawa
- Marios H. Michael
Institutions
- University of Stuttgart (DE)
- University of Bremen (DE)
- Kansas State University (US)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (US)
- Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (KR)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (DE)
- Bellevue Hospital Center (US)
- Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (DE)
- Flatiron Health (United States) (US)
- Intellectual Ventures (United States) (US)
- Flatiron Institute (US)
- Stony Brook University (US)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
- University of Tennessee at Knoxville (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- RWTH Aachen University (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature
- Published
- 2026-02-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-10062-6
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 80.84
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Council for Higher Education
- Division of Materials Research