QLC: EAGER: Electronic Spectroscopy and Photochemistry of Cavity Polaritons

量子信息科学的进步可以带来现实世界的变革性应用，如量子密码学，它可以实现不可能妥协的超安全通信。然而，这样的突破需要克服困难的基础和技术挑战，以创造光和物质强烈耦合在一起的系统，从而产生类似波和粒子的新物理特性。在这个由化学部门化学结构动力学和机制（CSDM-A）项目资助的项目中，罗切斯特大学的Todd Krauss教授和Nick Vamivakas教授正在使用复杂的激光技术研究耦合光物质系统的未开发的物理和化学性质。该项目的发现可能对安全通信和信息技术以及国家、医疗、经济和安全利益的其他领域产生广泛影响。该项目还为下一代科学家在光学科学和纳米材料交叉领域的跨学科研究提供培训机会。微腔极化子是激子和腔内光子的混合激发，具有独特的光学和电子特性，可以对电子自旋和/或晶体动量进行精确的光学控制。最近，在结合原子薄半导体材料及其范德华键结异质结构的器件中实现了微腔极化。该项目使用超快光谱学来表征控制微腔极化子（以及相关激子）光发射的基本激发态光物理学，从而为耦合腔-激子系统中存在的多体相互作用提供了一个独特的窗口。荧光显微镜技术被用于成像单个光化学反应涉及微腔极化与单反应分辨率。通过控制光学腔内分子的势能面，可以通过光激发腔极化产生新的化学反应机制，这将开辟新的反应途径，从而使目前无法使用经典方法的化学反应成为可能。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.