Few-Electron Ultrastrong Light-Matter Coupling at 300 GHz with Nanogap Hybrid LC Microcavities

Ultrastrong light-matter coupling allows the exploration of new states of matter through the interaction of strong vacuum fields with huge electronic dipoles. By using hybrid dipole antenna-split ring resonator-based cavities with extremely small effective mode volumes V_eff/λ₀³ ≃ 6 × 10^-10 and surfaces S_eff/λ₀² ≃ 3.5 × 10^-7, we probe the ultrastrong light-matter coupling at 300 GHz to less than 100 electrons located in the last occupied Landau level of a high mobility two-dimensional electron gas, measuring a normalized coupling ratio of Ω_R/ω_c = 0.36. Effects of the extremely reduced cavity dimensions are observed as the light-matter coupled system is better described by an effective mass heavier than the uncoupled one. These results open the way to ultrastrong coupling at the single-electron level in two-dimensional electron systems.