Researchers from the University of Warsaw, Poland’s Military University of Technology, IBM Research Zurich and France’s CNRS have observed a supersolid at room temperature. The result was published in Science Advances and announced by the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Physics.
A supersolid is a state of matter that flows without friction, like a superfluid, while keeping a regular, crystal-like structure. The team created it in a condensate of polaritons, half-light, half-matter particles, inside a liquid-crystal microcavity coated with an organic semiconductor.
Until now, most of these exotic quantum states could only be studied with cryogenic equipment close to absolute zero. According to the researchers, these microcavities can work at temperatures approaching 60 °C and can be tuned electrically with an external voltage.
The team points to possible uses in ultrafast photonic devices, brain-inspired computing accelerators and highly sensitive optical sensors, although the work is still fundamental research.
