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World's First 'Supersolid' Matter Formed Using Light.

Science and Technology | Dated: 22 Mar 2025

In March 2025, an international team of scientists, led by researchers from the Institute of Nanotechnology at the National Research Council (CNR Nanotec) in Lecce, Italy, successfully transformed light into a "Supersolid" for the first time globally.

🎯 Key Highlights:

  • - A supersolid is a unique and rare phase of matter that combines the rigidity of a crystal with the frictionless flow of a superfluid. The emergence of this supersolid phase in a photonic crystal polariton condensate was published in the Nature journal on March 5, 2025.
  • - Unlike traditional atomic Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs), this research presents the first experimental evidence of a supersolid phase in a driven-dissipative, non-equilibrium system. Researchers achieved the supersolid state by condensing polaritons into a bound-in-the-continuum state within a photonic crystal waveguide.

💡 Other Important Facts:

  • (i) Although supersolidity was theorized in the 1960s, its first experimental confirmation came in 2017 using traditional ultracold atom systems, specifically with dipolar quantum gases.
  • (ii) The study involved leading institutions such as CNR National Institute of Optics (CNR-INO) in Italy, Princeton University in the United States, and several others, with funding from programs like the National Quantum Science and Technology Institute (NQSTI) in Italy and the European Union (EU).

📚 Test Your Knowledge:

Which element was used recently to create the world’s first supersolid?

Correct Answer: Light

🚀 Quick Recap: