Chiral superfluorescence from perovskite superlattices at room temperature

Article Chiral superfluorescence from perovskite superlattices at room temperature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10637-x Received: 5 November 2024 Qi Wei1,7, Jonah S. Peter2,3,4,7, Hui Ren1,7, Weizhen Wang1, Luwei Zhou1, Qi Liu1, Stefan Ostermann2, Jun Yin1, Songhua Cai1, Susanne F. Yelin2 ✉ & Mingjie Li1,5,6 ✉ Accepted: 7 May 2026 Published online: xx xx xxxx Open access Check for updates Superfluorescence (SF) is the collective emission of intense, coherent light from an interacting ensemble of quantum emitters1–4. Although SF has been observed in several solid-state materials5–8, the spontaneous generation of circularly polarized SF from chiral materials (chiral SF) has not been realized9,10. Here, we report the observation of chiral SF originating from edge states in large-area (>100 µm × 100 µm), vertically aligned chiral perovskite superlattices at room temperature. Theoretical quantum optics calculations describe the transition from initially unpolarized, incoherent spontaneous emission to a coherent chiral SF state, quantitatively reproducing both the experimentally observed generation of circular polarization (up to about 14%) and its reversal of sign with opposite material handedness. Moreover, we show that both the intensity and the degree of circular polarization of chiral SF can be modulated by a weak magnetic field, enabling precise control over solid-state quantum light emission at room temperature. Our findings demonstrate an interplay between chirality and many-body quantum coherence, thereby showing promising new directions for chirality-controlled quantum optical applications. Superfluorescence (SF) and superradiance describe remarkable quantum optical phenomena in which the light radiated from an ensemble of quantum emitters is enhanced through cooperative light–matter interactions1–4. Although the terms are often used interchangeably, superradiance traditionally refers to radiation from a correlated initial state11, whereas SF originates from an initially uncorrelated state that develops a spontaneously enhanced dipole moment through interactions with the electromagnetic vacuum (Supplementary Note 1). As such, SF is a fundamentally quantum mechanical effect that offers unique insight into many-body correlations and entanglement dynamics in photonic systems12–15. The development of strongly superfluorescent quantum materials could thus drive marked advancements in optoelectronics and quantum technologies, including ultrafast quantum memories, high-speed optical interconnects and scalable quantum information processing architectures16–18. In recent years, chiral materials have emerged as promising platforms for manipulating correlated quantum dynamics. The discovery of the chirality-induced spin selectivity effect has stimulated the development of next-generation spintronics devices, with relevance to both classical and quantum information processing19–23. More recently, a photonic analogue of chirality-induced spin selectivity arising from chiral SF—in which the circular polarization of the superfluorescent light is determined by the handedness of the chiral material—was predicted theoretically9,10, synergizing the transformative aspects of coherent quantum optics with those of chiral materials. Although SF has been observed in several materials, including cryogenically cooled InGaAs quantum wells under strong magnetic fields5, perovskite quantum dots at low temperatures6 and quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) hybrid perovskite thin films at high temperatures8,24, its realization in chiral solid-state architectures remains unknown. Moreover, despite its revolutionary potential for both photonic and quantum optical applications, chiral SF (or superradiance) has not been demonstrated in any experimental system, to our knowledge. The development of scalable fabrication techniques for uniform and reproducible solid-state SF also remains an important hurdle for widespread implementation. In this study, we report the observation of room-temperature chiral SF originating from the edge states of vertically aligned quasi-2D hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite superlattices. We demonstrate that the chirality of the superlattices, achieved through chirality transfer by chiral ligands25, enables strong chiral SF with a degree of circular polarization (DCP) of up to about 14%. Our quantum optics calculations quantitatively reproduce the observed DCP amplification at high excitation density, as well as its reversal of sign with opposite material handedness. Moreover, we show that a weak external magnetic field (<0.5 T) can further enhance both the chiral SF intensity and the DCP. Our results demonstrate a close connection between chirality and macroscopic quantum coherence in perovskite superlattices and open promising avenues for quantum spin-optical applications26. Chiral perovskite superlattices and PL spectra We developed three types of quasi-2D (n > 1) perovskite superlattices to probe solid-state SF. Each material follows the formula L2MAn−1PbnI3n+1 (Fig. 1a), where n is the number of inorganic octahedral layers per quantum well, and the quantum-well spacer L is either the achiral ligand 1 Department of Applied Physics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. 2Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. 3Biophysics Program, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA. 4Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge University, Boston, MA, USA. 5Shenzhen Research Institute, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Shenzhen, China. 6Photonics Research Institute, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. 7These authors contributed equally: Qi Wei, Jonah S. Peter, Hui Ren. ✉e-mail: ; Nature | www.nature.com | 1 Article e c a Chiral SF Chiral ligand Pb I N C H MA Synchronization Giant dipole b f d Top-down 18Å n=3 PL intensity (a.u.) Cross-section Pump fluence (μJ cm–2) 38 64 70 87 96 105 127 140 153 172 660 680 700 720 740 Wavelength (nm) Fig. 1 | Structure and spectra of chiral perovskite superlattices. a, Schematic of quasi-2D perovskite superlattices grown vertically on an MAPbBr3 substrate. b,c, Top-view (b) and cross-sectional view (c) scanning electron microscope images. d, Top-down and cross-section STEM images of the SMBA (left-handed) chiral perovskite superlattices. The number of octahedral layers n = 3 in each quantum well is shown on the right of d with a thickness of 18 Å. e, Schematic of the spontaneous formation of a giant circularly polarized dipole from an initially incoherent dipolar ensemble, leading to chiral SF. Small arrows indicate individual dipole phasors. f, Power-dependent PL spectra of the SMBA perovskite superlattices under 550 nm linearly polarized pump excitation at room temperature. Inset, the real-space interferogram images collected by a camera using a Michelson interferometer above the SF threshold. Scale b (...truncated)