Superradiant Quantum Materials

Abstract: There is currently great interest in the strong coupling between the quantized photon field of a cavity and electronic or other degrees of freedom in materials. A major goal is the creation of novel collective states entangling photons with those degrees of freedom. Here we show that the cooperative effect between strong electron interactions in quantum materials and the long-range correlations induced by the photon field leads to the stabilization of coherent phases of light and matter. By studying a two-band model of interacting electrons coupled to a cavity field, we show that a phase characterized by the simultaneous condensation of excitons and photon superradiance can be realized, hence stabilizing and intertwining two collective phenomena which are rather elusive in the absence of this cooperative effect.