QLC: EAGER: Electronic Spectroscopy and Photochemistry of Cavity Polaritons

University Of Rochester, Rochester NY

Investigators

Abstract

Advances in quantum information science can lead to transformative real-world applications such as quantum cryptography, which could enable ultra-secure communications that are impossible to compromise. However, such breakthroughs require overcoming difficult fundamental and technological challenges to create systems that strongly couple together light and matter, resulting in new physical properties that resemble both waves and particles. In this project funded by the Chemical Structure Dynamics and Mechanism (CSDM-A) program of the Chemistry Division, Professor Todd Krauss and Professor Nick Vamivakas of the University of Rochester are using sophisticated laser techniques to study the unexplored physical and chemical properties of coupled light-matter systems. The discoveries from this project could have broad implications for secure communication and information technology, and other areas of national, medical, economic and security interest. The project is also providing training opportunities for the next generation of scientists in interdisciplinary research at the intersection of optical science and nanomaterials. Microcavity polaritons, hybrid excitations of excitons and cavity confined photons, have been shown to exhibit unique optical and electronic properties that result in precise optical control over electron spin and/or crystal momentum. Recently, microcavity polaritons have been realized in devices that combine atomically thin semiconductor materials, and their van der Waals bonded heterostructures. This project is using ultrafast optical spectroscopy to characterize the fundamental excited state photophysics that governs light emission from microcavity polaritons (and associated excitons) and thus provide a unique window into the many-body interactions present in the coupled cavity-exciton system. Fluorescence microscopy techniques are being used to image individual photochemical reactions involving microcavity polaritons with single-reaction resolution. By controlling the potential energy surfaces of molecules inside an optical cavity, new chemical reaction mechanisms could result via photoexcitation of cavity polaritons that will open up new reaction pathways and thus enable chemistries currently not possible using classical approaches. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.