Manipulating Intertwined Orders in Solids with Quantum Light

Phys Rev Lett. 2020 Nov 20;125(21):217402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.217402.

Abstract

Intertwined orders exist ubiquitously in strongly correlated electronic systems and lead to intriguing phenomena in quantum materials. In this Letter, we explore the unique opportunity of manipulating intertwined orders through entangling electronic states with quantum light. Using a quantum Floquet formalism to study the cavity-mediated interaction, we show the vacuum fluctuations effectively enhance the charge-density-wave correlation, giving rise to a phase with entangled electronic order and photon coherence, with putative superradiant behaviors in the thermodynamic limit. Furthermore, upon injecting even one single photon in the cavity, different orders, including s-wave and η-paired superconductivity, can be selectively enhanced. Our study suggests a new and generalizable pathway to control intertwined orders and create light-matter entanglement in quantum materials. The mechanism and methodology can be readily generalized to more complicated scenarios.