Supersolid light in a semiconductor microcavity
Abstract
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 and optical intensities ) for experimental realization. This work establishes plasmonic cavities as a platform for correlated photonic matter with emergent quantum order.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2509.09007,
title = {Supersolid light in a semiconductor microcavity},
author = {J. L. Figueiredo and J. T. Mendonça and H. Terças},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.09007},
year = {2026}
}