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arXiv · 1704.07261

Many-molecule reaction triggered by a single photon in polaritonic chemistry

Javier Galego·Francisco J. Garcia-Vidal·Johannes Feist
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Abstract

The second law of photochemistry states that in most cases, no more than one molecule is activated for an excited-state reaction for each photon absorbed by a collection of molecules. In this work, we demonstrate that it is possible to trigger a many-molecule reaction using only one photon by strongly coupling the molecular ensemble to a confined light mode. The collective nature of the resulting hybrid states of the system (the so-called polaritons) leads to the formation of a polaritonic "supermolecule" involving the degrees of freedom of all molecules, opening a reaction path on which all involved molecules undergo a chemical transformation. We theoretically investigate the system conditions for this effect to take place and be enhanced.

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Javier Galego, Francisco J. Garcia-Vidal, Johannes Feist. 2017-04-24. Many-molecule reaction triggered by a single photon in polaritonic chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.119.136001

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