Photonic synthetic materials provide an opportunity to explore the role of microscopic quantum phenomena in determining macroscopic material properties. There are, however, fundamental obstacles to overcome — in vacuum, photons not only lack mass, but also do not naturally interact with one another. Here, we review how the superconducting quantum circuit platform has been harnessed in the last decade to make some of the first materials from light. We describe the structures that are used to imbue individual microwave photons with matter-like properties such as mass, the nonlinear elements that mediate interactions between these photons, and quantum dynamic/thermodynamic approaches that can be used to assemble and stabilize strongly correlated states of many photons. We then describe state-of-the-art techniques to generate synthetic magnetic fields, engineer topological and non-topological flat bands and explore the physics of quantum materials in non-Euclidean geometries — directions that we view as some of the most exciting for this burgeoning field. Finally, we discuss upcoming prospects, and in particular opportunities to probe novel aspects of quantum thermalization and detect quasi-particles with exotic anyonic statistics, as well as potential applications in quantum information science.

光子合成材料提供了探索微观量子现象在确定宏观材料特性中的作用的机会。但是，有一些基本的障碍需要克服，在真空中，光子不仅缺乏质量，而且彼此之间不会自然相互作用。在这里，我们将回顾在过去十年中如何利用超导量子电路平台从光中制造出一些首批材料。我们描述了用于向单个微波光子注入类似物质性质的结构，例如质量，介导这些光子之间相互作用的非线性元素以及可用于组装和稳定许多光强相关状态的量子动力学/热力学方法光子。然后，我们描述产生合成磁场的最新技术，设计拓扑和非拓扑平带，并探索非欧几里得几何形状中的量子材料的物理原理，我们认为这是这个新兴领域最令人兴奋的方向。最后，我们讨论了即将到来的前景，特别是探讨量子热化的新方面和利用奇异的等离子统计数据检测准粒子的机会，以及在量子信息科学中的潜在应用。