CAREER: Rules for Polaritonic Chemistry

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With support from the Chemical Structure, Dynamics, and Mechanisms-A (CSDM-A) Program in the Division of Chemistry, Aaron Rury of Wayne State University will use pump-probe spectroscopy to understand how quantum particles of light confined in small cavities carry chemical information between molecules and materials under strong light-matter coupling conditions. Because light traditionally couples to its surrounding medium weakly, Dr. Rury and his research group will fabricate small photon traps to form hybrid light matter-states called cavity polaritons that can be reliably studied using steady-state and time-resolved electromagnetic spectroscopies. By measuring where the samples absorb and emit, it should be possible to put forward rules governing polaritonic properties that advance chemical and materials design principles. Both graduate and undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds will be involved in these quantum science research activities. Ultrafast pump-probe, coherent vibrational, and steady-state spectroscopic techniques will be employed to determine how the delocalized nature of cavity multipolaritons mediates spin orbit coupling between materials and organic chromophores, controls the nuclear structures of hybrid light-matter states, and enables researchers to control polariton state lifetimes toward the end of achieving quantum photonic materials design. Thin films of molecular chromophores or semiconductors that are strongly coupled to optical cavity modes will be used to create bonding-like interactions between molecules across hundreds of nanometers. Once rules that govern polaritonic chemistry are better understood, these rules should help to establish structure-property relationships in hybrid mutlipolaritonic systems. The ability to induce new chemistry in these cavities could provide for a new approach to molecular and materials design for photochemistry and quantum information science.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.