QLC: EAGER: Electronic Spectroscopy and Photochemistry of Cavity Polaritons

量子信息科学的进步可以带来变革性的现实世界应用，如量子密码学，这可能使超安全通信成为可能，而这些通信是不可能被破坏的。然而，这样的突破需要克服困难的基本和技术挑战，创造出将光和物质强烈耦合在一起的系统，从而产生类似于波和粒子的新物理性质。在这项由化学系化学结构动力学和机理(CSDM-A)计划资助的项目中，罗切斯特大学的托德·克劳斯教授和尼克·瓦米瓦卡斯教授正在使用先进的激光技术来研究耦合光-物质系统尚未探索的物理和化学性质。该项目的发现可能对安全通信和信息技术以及其他涉及国家、医疗、经济和安全利益的领域产生广泛影响。该项目还为光学科学和纳米材料交叉学科研究的下一代科学家提供了培训机会。微腔极化子是激子和腔约束光子的混合激发，具有独特的光学和电学性质，可以精确地控制电子自旋和/或晶体的动量。最近，微腔极化子已经在结合原子薄半导体材料和它们的范德华键合异质结构的器件中实现。这个项目利用超快光谱学来描述基本激发态光物理，它控制着微腔极化子(和相关激子)的光发射，从而为了解耦合腔-激子系统中存在的多体相互作用提供了一个独特的窗口。荧光显微镜技术正被用来以单反应分辨率成像涉及微腔极化子的单个光化学反应。通过控制光学腔内分子的势能面，新的化学反应机制可以通过光激励腔极化子而产生，这将开辟新的反应路径，从而使目前使用经典方法无法实现的化学反应成为可能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.