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Surface-Mediated Ultrastrong Cavity Coupling of Two-Dimensional Itinerant Electrons

Christian J. Eckhardt1,2, Andrey Grankin3, Dante M. Kennes2,1, Michael Ruggenthaler1, Angel Rubio1,4, Michael A. Sentef5,1, Mohammad Hafezi3, and Marios H. Michael1,*

  • *Contact author: marios.michael@mpsd.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 156902 – Published 7 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2fw2-lbhy

Abstract

Engineering phases of matter in cavities requires effective light-matter coupling strengths that are on the same order of magnitude as the bare system energetics, coined the ultrastrong coupling regime. For models of itinerant electron systems, which do not have discrete energy levels, a clear definition of this regime has been lacking to date. Here, we argue that a change of the electronic mass exceeding 10% of its bare value may serve as such a definition. We propose a quantitative computational scheme for obtaining the electronic mass in relation to its bare vacuum value and show that coupling to surface polariton modes can induce such mass changes. Our results have important implications for cavity design principles that enable the engineering of electronic properties with quantum light.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 156902– Published 7 October, 2025
  • Received 17 September 2024
  • Accepted 10 September 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

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