Unveiling the method to harness polaritons' extraordinary abilities revealed
In a groundbreaking development, researchers from the University of California San Diego have made a significant stride in controlling polaritons, hybrid light-matter particles that offer a tantalizing new way to control chemistry.
Led by project co-leader Wei Xiong, the team has demonstrated a method to tune disorder in reactions and control particle-polaritons specific to luminescent materials. This is achieved by manipulating the vacuum between mirrors, enabling efficient long-range coupling and control of chemical reactions through light-matter hybrid states (polaritons).
Polaritons, which are part photon and part molecule, do not take well to disorder and are unable to perform long-range energy transfer in high-disorder environments like solutions. However, the team's findings suggest that highly ordered structures make materials more susceptible to polaritonic interactions.
The method currently applies to light-induced cavity reactions only, with the mechanisms behind dark cavity polaritonic chemistry remaining unclear. Nevertheless, chemists are eager to learn how to control polaritons for use in synthesis, particularly for stereoselective reactions with high-value chemicals.
Previous research has suggested that the collective coupling strength must be larger than previously thought to guarantee delocalised polaritons. Xiong's team has defined new criteria for when strong coupling can show some of its magic power.
The team's work has shown that when confined inside a cavity, a phenol derivative switches between different conformations three times faster in its solid form, but not in a saturated solution. This demonstrates the importance of order in polaritonic interactions.
Other times, non-conducting polymers can show electrical conductance when confined in a cavity. These astonishing changes in compounds confined in a cavity could potentially lead to applications in light-harvesting devices, optical computing, and possibly lightsabers, as polaritons may help achieve interactions between photons.
Moreover, the potential of machine learning to 'change the paradigm' for polaritonic chemistry has been suggested in recent years. As research in this field continues to evolve, we may soon witness a new era of chemistry, where light and matter are more intimately connected than ever before.
