Exploring superconductivity under strong coupling with the vacuum electromagnetic field
Anoop Thomas, Éloïse Devaux, Kalaivanan Nagarajan, Thibault Chervy, Marcus Seidel, Guillaume Rogez, Jérôme Robert, Marc Drillon, Tingting Ruan, Sören Schlittenhardt, Mario Ruben, David Hagenmüller, Stefan Schütz, Johannes Schachenmayer, Cyriaque Genet, Guido Pupillo, Thomas W. Ebbesen
Abstract
Strong light-matter interactions have generated considerable interest as a means to manipulate material properties. Here, we explore this possibility with the molecular superconductor Rb3C60 under vibrational strong coupling (VSC) to surface plasmon polaritons. By placing the superconductor-surface plasmon system in a SQUID magnetometer, we find that the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) increases from 30 to 45 K at normal pressures under VSC, displaying a well-defined Meissner effect. A simple theoretical framework is provided to understand these results based on an enhancement of the electron-phonon coupling. This proof-of-principle study opens a new tool box to not only modify superconducting materials but also to understand the mechanistic details of different superconductors.