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  • Letter

Ultrafast all-optical switching via a supersolid phase transition of light

J. L. Figueiredo1, J. T. Mendonça1, and H. Terças1,2

Phys. Rev. A 114, L031502 – Published 21 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/sbsn-1fvr

Abstract

We propose ultrafast all-optical switching exploiting the bistability between a spatially uniform photon superfluid and a spontaneously ordered supersolid in a driven-dissipative microcavity. The key ingredient is a tunable nonlocal photon-photon interaction engineered by embedding a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) inside the cavity. A drift current displaces the Fermi disk, imparting a negative region to the Lindhard interaction kernel at finite wave vectors and triggering a roton instability. The resulting bistable S-curve supports a write-hold-erase protocol in which short optical pulses toggle the system between branches with a switching contrast of order 120 dB in our simulations. The hysteretic on state persists under a constant subthreshold drive after the write pulse is removed, realizing an all-optical bistable memory. Since the photon field couples additively to each embedded quantum well, stacking layers with distinct drift angles allows the roton profile to be engineered with higher-order symmetries, imprinting richer spatial order on the supersolid and enabling nonbinary generalizations of the switch. Operating in the ultrafast, sub-fJ regime, this platform outperforms most existing all-optical switches in contrast and reconfigurability.

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