Quantum materials QED with van der Waals crystals
Abstract
A central goal of the emerging field of materials QED is to harness subwavelength electromagnetic confinement in engineered cavities to tailor light-matter interactions. Here, we demonstrate that van der Waals multilayer cavities composed of stacked graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) provide unprecedented control over hybridization between their electromagnetic resonances. By magnetically tuning graphene inter-Landau-level transitions (ILTs) into resonance with hBN phonons, we witness broadband, mode-selective strong coupling in the mid-infrared. Our quantum-material QED framework shows that cavity geometry and layer placement jointly control both coupling strength and modal selectivity. For experimentally realistic cavity parameters, the predicted mode splitting exceeds the width of the hBN Reststrahlen band, providing a direct route to the ultrastrong coupling regime. Together, these results establish van der Waals multilayer cavities as a scalable platform for tunable multimode QED and broaden the design space for reconfigurable quantum materials.
Related
- Polarized X-rays from table-top free-electron-driven van der Waals crystals
- Modifying van der Waals Materials via Cavity Vacuum Fluctuations
- Geometry-Controlled Magnetic and Electronic Landscapes in Anisotropic van der Waals Materials
- Theory of High-Temperature Fractional Chern Phases in Monolayer van der Waals Kagome Materials A2T3X4
- Excitonic Stark Response Induced by Quantum Capacitance in van der Waals Heterostructures
BibTeX
@misc{xu2026quantum,
title = {{Quantum materials QED with van der Waals crystals}},
author = {Suheng Xu and Brian Vermilyea and Ran Jing and Lukas Wehmeier and Jihoon Park and Rafael A. Mayer and Xinzhong Chen and Samuel L. Moore and Fuyang Tay and Boyi Zhou and Wenjun Zheng and Dihao Sun and Birui Yang and Cory R. Dean and Daniel Cazorla and Xu Du and Milan Delor and Andrew J. Millis and Angel Rubio and Michael M. Fogler and Mengkun Liu and D. N. Basov},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.02514},
eprint = {2610.02514},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.02514},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Quantum materials QED with van der Waals crystals
AU - Suheng Xu
AU - Brian Vermilyea
AU - Ran Jing
AU - Lukas Wehmeier
AU - Jihoon Park
AU - Rafael A. Mayer
AU - Xinzhong Chen
AU - Samuel L. Moore
AU - Fuyang Tay
AU - Boyi Zhou
AU - Wenjun Zheng
AU - Dihao Sun
AU - Birui Yang
AU - Cory R. Dean
AU - Daniel Cazorla
AU - Xu Du
AU - Milan Delor
AU - Andrew J. Millis
AU - Angel Rubio
AU - Michael M. Fogler
AU - Mengkun Liu
AU - D. N. Basov
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.02514
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.02514
AB - A central goal of the emerging field of materials QED is to harness subwavelength electromagnetic confinement in engineered cavities to tailor light-matter interactions. Here, we demonstrate that van der Waals multilayer cavities composed of stacked graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) provide unprecedented control over hybridization between their electromagnetic resonances. By magnetically tuning graphene inter-Landau-level transitions (ILTs) into resonance with hBN phonons, we witness broadband, mode-selective strong coupling in the mid-infrared. Our quantum-material QED framework shows that cavity geometry and layer placement jointly control both coupling strength and modal selectivity. For experimentally realistic cavity parameters, the predicted mode splitting exceeds the width of the hBN Reststrahlen band, providing a direct route to the ultrastrong coupling regime. Together, these results establish van der Waals multilayer cavities as a scalable platform for tunable multimode QED and broaden the design space for reconfigurable quantum materials.
ER -