Laser light made into a supersolid for the first time by StuffsEarth

A small international team of nanotechnologists, engineers and physicists has developed a way to force laser light into becoming a supersolid. Their paper is published in the journal Nature. The editors at Nature have published a Research Briefing in the same issue summarizing the work.

Supersolids are entities that exist only in the quantum world, and, up until now, they have all been made using atoms. Prior research has shown that they have zero viscosity and are formed in crystal-like structures similar to the way atoms are arranged in salt crystals.

Because of their nature, supersolids have been created in extremely cold environments where the quantum effects can be seen. Notably, one of the team members on this new effort was part of the team that demonstrated more than a decade ago that light could become a fluid under the right set of circumstances.

To create their supersolid, the researchers fired a laser at a piece of gallium arsenide that had been shaped with special ridges. As the light struck the ridges, interactions between it and the material resulted in the formation of polaritons—a kind of hybrid particle—which were constrained by the ridges in a predesigned way. Doing so forced the polaritons into forming themselves into a supersolid.

The research team then set themselves the task of testing it to make sure it truly was a supersolid—a task made more difficult by the fact that a supersolid made from light had never been created before. Despite the difficulties, they were able to show that their supersolid was both a solid and a fluid and that it had no viscosity.

The team plans to continue their work with the light-made supersolid to learn more about its structure. They note that supersolids made from light might be easier to work with than those made with atoms, which could help us better understand the nature of supersolids in general.

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