Supersolid light in a semiconductor microcavity
Supersolidity - simultaneous superfluid flow and crystalline order - has been realized in quantum atomic systems but remains unexplored in purely photonic platforms operating at weak light-matter coupling. We predict a supersolid phase of light in a plasma-filled optical microcavity, where photons acquire effective mass and interact via nonlocal, plasma-mediated nonlinearities. By deriving a Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a tunable photon-photon interaction kernel, we show that under coherent driving the cavity light field can spontaneously crystallize into a supersolid lattice via modulational instability. Crucially, this supersolid arises from a weak photon-electron coupling enabled by virtual electronic transitions, and it does not require hybrid polariton formation. Using doped semiconductor microcavities, we identify feasible conditions (electron densities $\sim 10^{10}- 10^{11}~\mathrm{cm}^{-2}$ and optical intensities $\sim 10^{2}-10^{4}~\mathrm{W/cm}^{2}$) for experimental realization. This work establishes plasmonic cavities as a platform for correlated photonic matter with emergent quantum order.
Authors
- Hugo Terças (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2826-4377)
- J. T. Mendonça
Institutions
- Universidade Politécnica de Lisboa (PT)
- Instituto Superior Técnico (PT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. A/Physical review, A
- Published
- 2026-02-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/mqmz-nwqj
- Primary Topic
- Strong Light-Matter Interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00