Cavity-mediated electron-photon superconductivity

TL;DR

This paper explores how vacuum fluctuations inside a nanoplasmonic terahertz cavity can induce electron pairing in two-dimensional materials, leading to a novel pair density wave superconductor with tunable properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates that structured cavity vacuum can mediate long-range attractive interactions causing superconductivity in 2D systems, a new approach to engineering electron interactions.

Findings

Induced superconductivity with critical temperatures in the low-Kelvin range.

Formation of a pair density wave superconductor with a transition from fully gapped to pseudogap phase.

Potential for engineering intrinsic electron interactions in 2D materials using cavity vacuum.

Abstract

We investigate electron paring in a two-dimensional electron system mediated by vacuum fluctuations inside a nanoplasmonic terahertz cavity. We show that the structured cavity vacuum can induce long-range attractive interactions between current fluctuations which lead to pairing in generic materials with critical temperatures in the low-Kelvin regime for realistic parameters. The induced state is a pair density wave superconductor which can show a transition from a fully gapped to a partially gapped phase - akin to the pseudogap phase in high-$T_c$ superconductors. Our findings provide a promising tool for engineering intrinsic electron interactions in two-dimensional materials.