2025/05/23 by Keren, Itai, Webb, Tatiana A., Zhang, Shuai +30
#FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2505.17378
Is it feasible to alter the ground state properties of a material by engineering its electromagnetic environment? Inspired by theoretical predictions, experimental realizations of such cavity-controlled properties without optical excitation are beginning to emerge. Here, we devised and implemented a novel 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. 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 supported by first-principles molecular Langevin dynamics simulations 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 demonstrate a strong suppression of superfluid density near the hBN/(κ-ET) interface. Non-resonant control heterostructures, including RuCl3/(κ-ET) and hBN/Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x, do not display the 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.