Proceedings

EPJ D Highlight - The power of light-matter coupling

Illustration of molecules coupled to the fundamental optical mode of a 145nm thick Fabry-Perot cavity. It features a typical example of the absorption spectrum of uncoupled (red line) and coupled (dark line) molecules. © A. Canaguier-Durand et al.

A theoretical study shows that strong ties between light and organic matter at the nanoscale open the door to modifying these coupled systems’ optical, electronic or chemical properties.

Light and matter can be so strongly linked that their characteristics become indistinguishable. These light-matter couplings are referred to as polaritons. Their energy oscillates continuously between both systems, giving rise to attractive new physical phenomena. Now, scientists in France have explained why such polaritons can remain for an unusual long time at the lowest energy levels, in such a way that alters the microscopic and macroscopic characteristics of their constituting matter. These findings thus pave the way for optical, electronic and chemical applications. The work has been published in EPJ D by Antoine Canaguier-Durand from the University of Strasbourg, France, and colleagues.

The authors elected to study polaritons made of organic molecules that are strongly coupled with a small number of photons. They examined polariton relaxation dynamics, which occur when polaritons transition from high energy to lower energy levels. To do so, the team employed a rigorous mathematical approach called “dressed atoms”, which makes it possible to deduce characteristics such as transition rates from high to lower energy levels, for example.

In this study, the authors explain why the lifetime of the lowest lying polariton energy state is much longer than that of the higher lying state. These new results are in agreement with experimental results. But they are counter-intuitive compared to those provided by previous theoretical approximation methods, based on the behaviour of uncoupled light and matter, which hold that these states have the same duration.

This study thus confirms that it is possible to modify the pathways of vibrational transitions of molecules between higher and lower energy levels, the chemical photoreactions rates, or even to change conductivity in organic semiconductors as already observed.

This was our first experience of publishing with EPJ Web of Conferences. We contacted the publisher in the middle of September, just one month prior to the Conference, but everything went through smoothly. We have had published MNPS Proceedings with different publishers in the past, and would like to tell that the EPJ Web of Conferences team was probably the best, very quick, helpful and interactive. Typically, we were getting responses from EPJ Web of Conferences team within less than an hour and have had help at every production stage.
We are very thankful to Solange Guenot, Web of Conferences Publishing Editor, and Isabelle Houlbert, Web of Conferences Production Editor, for their support. These ladies are top-level professionals, who made a great contribution to the success of this issue. We are fully satisfied with the publication of the Conference Proceedings and are looking forward to further cooperation. The publication was very fast, easy and of high quality. My colleagues and I strongly recommend EPJ Web of Conferences to anyone, who is interested in quick high-quality publication of conference proceedings.

On behalf of the Organizing and Program Committees and Editorial Team of MNPS-2019, Dr. Alexey B. Nadykto, Moscow State Technological University “STANKIN”, Moscow, Russia. EPJ Web of Conferences vol. 224 (2019)

ISSN: 2100-014X (Electronic Edition)

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