Coherent and perfect absorption with organic molecules: an exploration of strong and ultra-strong light-matter coupling

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Strong coupling between light and matter means that photons can be absorbed and re-emitted many times before photons escape, or material excitations decay. Ultrastrong coupling means that the conversion between matter and light starts to approach the bare frequency of the cavity photons. In this regime, it is no longer appropriate to think of matter and light separately, but of the combined system, and the material properties can no longer be calculated in isolation. While such ideas have been discussed for some time in the context of THz or GHz frequency radiation, it has recently become accessible at optical frequencies using organic molecules in optical microcavities [1,2]. The aim of this project will be to explore a variety of strong and ultra-strong coupling phenomena in these systems, including coherent perfect absorption [3,4] (where impedance matching between mirror transmission and non-radiative losses is used to ensure maximum energy transfer to the matter-light system). In particular, building on recent work[5], we will explore how the vibrational sidebands present in molecular systems affect phenomena of strong and ultra-strong coupling. [1] S. Kéna-Cohen, S. a. Maier, and D. D. C. Bradley, Adv. Opt. Mater. n/a (2013). 10.1002/adom.201300256[2] A. Canaguier-Durand, E. Devaux, J. George, Y. Pang, J. a Hutchison, T. Schwartz, C. Genet, N. Wilhelms, J.-M. Lehn, and T. W. Ebbesen, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 52, 10533 (2013). 10.1002/anie.201301861[3] W. Wan, Y. Chong, L. Ge, H. Noh, a D. Stone, and H. Cao, Science 331, 889 (2011).10.1038/nphys3106[4] S. Zanotto, F. P. Mezzapesa, F. Bianco, G. Biasiol, L. Baldacci, M. S. Vitiello, L. Sorba, R. Colombelli, and A. Tredicucci, Nat. Phys. 10, (2014). 10.1126/science.1140990[5] J. A. Cwik, S. Reja, P. B. Littlewood, and J. Keeling, Eur. Lett. 105, 47009 (2014).Please list any agreed training requirements:Training is provided through the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA) graduate school. This includes a required 40 hours of technical courses and 20 hours of core skills training. So far, the agreed courses are:SUPAEPS - The Interacting Electron Problem in SolidsSUPAOQS - Open Quantum SystemsSUPAMPS - Matrix Product State and Tensor Network Approaches to Many Body Systems