Light into Supersolid
By Avani Sharan
Team Cosmofluencer
This world’s first ever supersolid from laser light is making waves in the and is a great advancement in world of physics.
This discovery of being able to turn light into supersolid brings us to certain questions like: What is a supersolid? How is light behaving like this material? Why laser light? What properties is this exhibiting? And most importantly, how is this going to help us?
Let’s find out!
The Groundbreaking Research
On 5th March 2025, the research paper “Emerging supersolidity in photonic-crystal polariton condensates” by Dimitrios Trypogeorgos et. al. was published in the ‘Nature’. This experiment was conducted by an international group of researchers which included nanotechnologists, engineers and physicists who have shown that light can behave as a supersolid.
The demonstration by the team from National Research Council of Italy and their collaborators has proved that light too can behave like supersolids.
The Supersolid State
Supersolid is a unique state of matter which exhibits both properties of solid and liquid. It has both the properties, structured organisation of a solid along with the frictionless zero viscosity flow of a liquid. This has been in theory for more than 50 years now, and has gained proof of the experimentalists only recently with the Bose-Einstein Condensates.
The research paper discussed in the previous section states that, “They (supersolids) have previously been achieved only with condensates of ultracold atoms. The observation of the supersolid state in photons provides a new window through which to peer into its mysteries.”
Supersolids are important to study because they show the effects of tiny, quantum interactions between particles. These supersolid entities of quantum world were known to be formed by atoms only, and is shown by experiments using superfluid helium at extremely low temperature (almost near absolute zero i.e. -273.15℃ or -459.67℉ or 0K).
The Experiment
A laser was shot at a piece of gallium arsenide that had been shaped with special microscopic ridges. As the light struck these ridges, interactions between the light waves and the material resulted in the formation of polaritons.
Polaritons are the particles formed due to strong coupling of photons with matter excitations. These remained constrained on the surface i.e. by the specifically designed ridges, hence the polaritons were forced into forming themselves into a supersolid.
The team confirmed with their first time ever experiments that this confined light is truly of supersolid state and that it had no viscosity. They now continue their work with the light-made supersolid to learn more about its structure.
The Results to Come
This concept is made even more mind-boggling for we see that the same properties, which were earlier only seen with material atoms, are now exhibited by the ‘frozen’ light.
Supersolid light could play a crucial role in developing more stable quantum bits (qubits), which are essential for the advancement of quantum computing. This will not only pave the way for advanced photonics solutions but also holds the power to revolutionize the world of quantum physics.
Even though we are unable to ‘see’ the direct results of this solid-liquid light in our lives today, this discovery will surely lead to amazing discoveries in the future as it has already opened new doors in the fields of quantum computing, superconductors, frictionless lubricants, and many more applications.
References
1. Trypogeorgos, D., Gianfrate, A., Landini, M. et al. Emerging supersolidity in photonic-crystal polariton condensates. Nature 639, 337–341 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08616-9
2. A supersolid made using photons | Nature
3. Laser light made into a supersolid for the first time | Phys.org
4. Scientists turn light into a ‘supersolid’ for the 1st time ever: What that means, and why it matters | Live Science