  Strong correlation effects emerge from light-matter interactions in coupled
resonator arrays, such as the Mott-insulator to superfluid phase transition of
atom-photon excitations. We demonstrate that the quenched dynamics of a
finite-sized complex array of coupled resonators induces a first-order like
phase transition. The latter is accompanied by domain nucleation that can be
used to manipulate the photonic transport properties of the emerging superfluid
phase; this in turn leads to an empirical scaling law. This universal behavior
emerges from the light-matter interaction and the topology of the array. The
validity of our results over a wide range of complex architectures might lead
to to a promising device for use in scaled quantum simulations.
