From weak to ultra-strong matter-light coupling with organic materials

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• Jonathan Keeling, St Andrews
• Thursday 17 March 2016, 13:45-15:00
• Venue to be confirmed.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Mike Gunn.

The idea of studying strong matter-light coupling using organic molecules has a long history¹, but has recently seen an explosion of experimental interest². In particular exciton-polariton lasing and condensation has now been observed in a variety of organic media, including anthracene, organic polymers, and fluorenes. Closely related to these strong coupling polariton condensates is the observation, in weak coupling, of Bose-Einstein condensation of photons in a dye-filled microcavity³. These experiments pose several questions about the relation of condensation and lasing, and about the role of vibrational modes in the physics of photon and polariton condensation. I will discuss our recent work on these subjects.

In the context of photon condensation, I will discuss the role of vibrational modes in establishing a thermal distribution of photons⁴, including the time-evolution toward the thermal state. In the context of polariton condensation I will discuss the effects of vibrational sidebands on Bose-Einstein condensation of polaritons⁵. As well as work on lasing or condensation, there has been an as-yet separate strand of work⁶ exploring how strong coupling in the vacuum can affect material properties. I will also discuss some work in progress⁷ exploring the effects of ultra-strong coupling on the vibrational state of molecules in the vacuum state, and its signatures in the absorption spectrum of a strongly coupled system.

[1] Agranovich, The Theory of Excitons (Nauka, 1410.6632. Moscow, 1968). Excitations in Organic Solids, (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009). [2] Kena-Cohen and Forrest, Nat. Photon. 4 371 (2010). Plumhof et al Nat. Mater. 13 247 (2014); Daskalakis et al, ibid 271. [3] Klaers et al, Nature 468 545 (2010) [4] Kirton and Keeling, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 100404 (2013); arXiv: 1410.6623 [5] Cwik et al, Eur. Phys. Lett. 105, 47009 (2014) [6] Canaguier-Durand et al Ang. Chem. 52, 10533 (2013 [7] Cwik, Kirton, De Liberato, and Keeling, in preparation.

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