Scientists Turn Light into a Supersolid: A Quantum Leap for Computing

1.    For the first time ever, researchers have turned light into a “supersolid” — a strange state of matter that behaves like both a solid and a liquid at the same time. While supersolids have been made from atoms before, this is the first instance of coupling light and matter to create one.

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What Is a Supersolid?

2.    A supersolid is a quantum state where particles form a regular, crystal-like structure (solid behavior) but can also flow without friction (liquid behavior). Think of ice that flows like water — that’s a rough analogy.

3.    Supersolids form at extremely low temperatures, close to absolute zero, because heat disrupts the delicate quantum interactions that allow them to exist. At these temperatures, particles settle into their lowest energy state, allowing researchers to observe quantum effects that are normally hidden.

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How Do You Make Light Solid?

4.    Photons, the particles of light, normally don’t interact and can’t form a solid. Scientists overcame this by trapping photons inside a special material where they interact strongly with excitons — quasiparticles formed from an electron and a “hole” left behind when the electron moves.

Special Matter 

5.    The “special material” used to create the supersolid is a semiconductor structure, often made from Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), engineered with a photonic-crystal waveguide. This setup allows photons to strongly interact with excitons (electron-hole pairs) in the material, forming hybrid particles called polaritons. The semiconductor provides a solid framework, while the patterned waveguide guides the polaritons into an ordered, crystal-like structure. At the same time, these polaritons can flow freely without friction, giving the system its supersolid properties.]

6.    This interaction creates polaritons, hybrid particles that are part light, part matter. The excitons provide the “solid” framework, while the light contributes quantum behavior and flow. When cooled, polaritons condense into a Bose–Einstein condensate, forming a supersolid — a lattice that is ordered like a solid but can flow without friction. Essentially, photons get “anchored” to matter, allowing light to act like a crystal.

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Why This Is Exciting

7.    Supersolids are more than a physics curiosity. They let us observe quantum interactions directly and could enable a new generation of technologies.

Potential applications include:

• Quantum computing: Light-based supersolids could act as qubits, processing information faster and more efficiently.

• Superconductors: Understanding frictionless flow could help create materials that conduct electricity without resistance.

• Frictionless materials & sensors: Could lead to ultra-precise sensors or materials that move smoothly at the nanoscale.

• Photonics & optical circuits: Using structured light for memory storage, quantum lasers, or light-based computing.

• Fundamental physics: A playground to study quantum mechanics and simulate extreme cosmic conditions.

Quantum Information Storage

8.    Supersolids of light could act as a platform for storing and processing quantum information. The hybrid light-matter particles (polaritons) can occupy stable quantum states in the ordered lattice, effectively encoding information. Because they can flow without friction, these states are coherent and long-lived, making them ideal for qubits in future light-based quantum computers. This opens the possibility of faster, more energy-efficient quantum computation using photons instead of conventional electronics.

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The Bottom Line

9.    Turning light into a supersolid is a milestone in quantum physics, bridging light and matter in a way never seen before. By coupling photons with excitons in a solid-like framework, scientists have created a crystal of light that flows like a liquid.

10.    While practical applications are still emerging, this discovery could pave the way for quantum computers, advanced materials, and entirely new technologies based on the behavior of light itself.

11.    The future may include computers, sensors, and circuits made not from silicon, but from “frozen light.”