Ground State Photochemistry

在强光-物质耦合中，局部表面等离子体共振（LSPRs）与激子混合形成多激子态，这些多激子态与单独的LSPRs和激子具有不同的能量。因此，强光-物质耦合使我们能够通过创造具有降低活化能的新反应途径来修改化学反应的能量景观。此外，pl激子是振子；因此，它们的基态具有非零能量。原则上，这些基态的性质可以通过协同控制分子激子和LSPR的性质来操纵，并用于操纵光化学反应的途径。在这个项目中，你将设计包含光反应分子的纳米结构等离子体组件，可以用来驱动全新的化学反应。等离子体纳米结构将通过将金属纳米粒子附着在原子力显微镜探针上和使用干涉光刻技术来制造。通过控制制造过程，您将创建具有定制属性的LSPRs，旨在与光活性分子相互作用。化学反应性将使用各种光谱和扫描探针显微镜方法进行表征，并与埃克塞特大学的研究人员合作，探索强光-物质耦合对光化学反应能量景观的影响

In strong light-matter coupling, localised surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) are mixed with excitons to form plexcitonic states, which have different energies to those of the separate LSPRs and excitons. Thus, strong light-matter coupling allows us to modify the energy landscapes for chemical reactions, by creating new reaction pathways with reduced activation energies. Moreover, plexcitons are oscillators; consequently, their ground states have non-zero energies. In principle, the properties of these ground states can be manipulated via synergistic control of the properties of the molecular excitons and the LSPR, and used to manipulate the pathways for photochemical reactions.In this project, you will design nanostructured plasmonic assemblies containing photoreactive molecules that can be used to drive entirely new kinds of chemical reaction. Plasmonic nanostructures will be fabricated by attaching metal nanoparticles to atomic force microscope probes and by using interferometric lithography. By control of the fabrication process you will create LSPRs with tailored properties designed to interact with photoactive molecules. Chemical reactivity will be characterised using a variety of spectroscopic and scanning probe microscopy methods, and in collaboration with researchers at Exeter University, the influence of strong light-matter coupling on the energy landscapes for photochemical reactions will be explored