Event

Abstract 

The effective use of molecular materials in next generation technologies applied to solar energy conversion, sensing, and information processing will necessitate enhancing the spatial and temporal coherence of molecule and hybrid molecular excitations. Given their relative smaller interparticle interactions, photons can propagate in both space and time ‘remembering’ the properties of their phase. By embedding sufficiently large concentrations of molecular chromophores in electromagnetic resonators, one can induce collective strong light-matter coupling and drive formation of hybrid light-matter states known as cavity polaritons. In this presentation, I will detail recent trends found by members of my group indicating cavity polaritons sustain the temporal and spatial coherence of resonator photons. In addition, I will highlight how we have used of this coherence to enable novel, cavity-enhanced light emission processes and the suppression of energetic disorder in amorphous molecular materials. These results are the first steps towards the rational design of polaritonic properties central to their use in everyday technologies.

Research 

-Research in the Material Structural Dynamics Laboratory (MSDL) strives to uncover the fundamental physical processes that lead to useful properties in emerging materials. New materials with useful and exotic properties remain necessary for the development of next generation technologies in electronics, photonics, and information science. The discovery of new materials also means the development and use of tools to explore the physical mechanisms from which their properties derive. Student and postdoctoral researchers in the MSDL will use experimental, theoretical, and computational methods to tackle problems that span the fields of chemistry, physics, materials science, and optics to connect physical mechanisms to material properties.

Our approach in the MSDL is founded on understanding material structure-function relationships through the lens of vibrational spectroscopy. In particular, we design, develop, and deploy vibrational spectroscopic techniques based on pulses of laser light whose durations are less than 1 tenth of 1 trillionth of a second (10-13s). Light pulses this short possess peak intensities that drive multiple photon-material interactions and give rise to the nonlinear optical properties of materials. In the MSDL, we will use these nonlinear optical interactions to produce new wavelengths of light, induce quantum coherent vibrational evolution, and watch the ultrafast dynamics of photo-excited material systems.

https://vibrodynamics1184.wixsite.com/aaronsrury

Host: Prof. Jessica Anna