Our laboratory has recently achieved a significant advance in quantum materials research by experimentally demonstrating vacuum-fluctuation-enhanced superconductivity. Using a terahertz split-ring resonator as a “dark” cavity, our team engineered the vacuum fluctuations surrounding the superconductor NbSe2. We found that the superconducting critical temperature increased substantially (up to 5.4% in a six-layer NbSe₂ device).
Systematic control experiments ruled out trivial factors , including strain, material degradation, sample inhomogeneity. Notably, we observed a pronounced peak-like dependence on cavity frequency, indicating resonant coupling between superconducting states and cavity modes. Our work demonstrates that vacuum fluctuations can be harnessed to noninvasively control quantum states of matter.
This work, entitled “Evidence for vacuum-enhanced superconductivity in NbSe₂,” was published in Nature on 19August. See the links below for the paper and the related press release.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11037-x
https://news.ustc.edu.cn/info/1055/95985.htm