An international team of researchers has shown that superconductivity can be modified by coupling a superconductor to a dark electromagnetic cavity. The research opens the door to the control of a material’s properties by modifying its electromagnetic environment.

Electronic structure defines many material properties – and this means that some properties can be changed by applying electromagnetic fields. The destruction of superconductivity by a magnetic field and the use of electric fields to control currents in semiconductors are two familiar examples.

There is growing interest in how electronic properties could be controlled by placing a material in a dark electromagnetic cavity that resonates with an electronic transition in that material. In this scenario, an external field is not applied to the material.…