- Accepted Paper
Ultrastrong-coupling signatures in photon statistics from terahertz Higgs polaritons
Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 13 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/hlk5-589d
Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 13 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/hlk5-589d
The ultrastrong coupling regime of cavity photons and quantum materials has emerged as a pathway to modify materials properties, however definitive signatures of ultrastrong coupling remain elusive. Focusing on the quantum photon statistics of light transmitted through a cavity-embedded superconductor, we show that a two-photon Higgs polariton at strong coupling realizes a photonic nonlinearity at the single terahertz photon level. We find that as light-matter coupling increases, the photon statistics show pronounced changes due to the formation of a hybrid photon-matter dark-cavity state with finite photon occupancy, producing testable signatures of ultrastrong coupling. We derive a non-Markovian input output relation and study the cavity-embedded superconductor 2H-NbSe2 as it approaches ultrastrong light-matter coupling. Our results reveal a diagnostic for ultrastrong coupling in the two-photon coincidence statistics that is absent in total counts.
If the author has provided any supplemental materials with this article they will be available upon publication of the version of record.