On the importance of experimental details: A Comment on "Non-Polaritonic Effects in Cavity-Modified Photochemistry"

Abstract

Recently, an article by the Barnes group reported on the experimental study of a photoisomerization reaction inside an optical cavity, claiming to reproduce previous results by Hutchison et al. and making the point that in such setups, changes in the absorption of ultraviolet radiation by the molecules in the cavity can lead to modifications in the photochemical reaction rate. While Hutchison et al. associated such modifications with the emergence of strong light-matter coupling, in their attempt to re-examine these experiments, Barnes et al. did not find any evidence that strong coupling needs to be invoked to explain the observed effects. In response to this publication, we herein highlight the main differences between the two experimental studies, and explain why the results of Barnes et al. are irrelevant to the former study and have no bearing on its conclusions. Specifically, we show that under the experimental conditions used by Hutchison et al. such intensity-modification effects are negligible and can therefore be ruled out.