Terahertz cavity amplifies vacuum fluctuations to raise NbSe2 critical temperature 5.4%
Placing NbSe2 inside an engineered terahertz cavity raised its superconducting transition temperature by 5.4% through amplified vacuum fluctuations, the first experimental confirmation that quantum vacuum modes can control macroscopic superconductivity. The finding opens a route to tune Tc, critical current, and critical field without chemical doping or mechanical strain. Reproducibility across cavity parameters and exclusion of classical artifacts support the vacuum-fluctuation interpretation, though extension to higher-Tc materials remains untested.
If the same relative boost can be achieved in cuprates or iron-based materials operating near 77 K, practical margins for fault-tolerant quantum circuits and compact MRI magnets would widen without requiring higher-pressure synthesis or new chemistries. Next steps include replacing the fixed resonator with tunable superconducting cavities to map the full frequency dependence and testing whether the same environment suppresses quasiparticle poisoning in Josephson junctions.
Zeng group: Replicating the 5% Tc shift in a monolayer cuprate at 77 K will be reported within 24 months if cavity frequency is tuned within 10% of the material plasma edge.
Sources (2)
- [1]Primary Source(https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-08234-7)
- [2]Supporting Source(https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-024-02567-3)