Title: Polariton Chemistry: Ultrafast Dynamics and Thermal Effects
Abstract: In the collective strong light-matter coupling regime, molecular polaritons may be regarded as quantum impurity models, where the impurity is a photon and the complex anharmonic molecular degrees of freedom serve as a bath. If this bath is large enough, as in the case of most molecular polariton experiments, the quantum dynamics of such a system becomes very simple to compute [1], as demonstrated by our recent method, Collective Dynamics using Truncated Equations (CUT-E) [2,3]. The conceptual implications of this method are also discussed in light of recent experiments in polariton chemistry. I will also comment on our recent understanding of vibropolaritonic chemistry in terms of mode-selective and blackbody radiation effects [4,5,6].
1. J. Yuen-Zhou and A. Koner, Linear response of molecular polaritons, arXiV:2310.15424, J. Chem. Phys., in press.
2. J. B. Pérez-Sánchez, A. Koner, N. P Stern, and J. Yuen-Zhou, Simulating molecular polaritons in the collective regime using few-molecule models, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 120(15) e2219223120 (2023).
3. J. Pérez-Sánchez, F. Mellini, N. C. Giebink, and J. Yuen-Zhou, “Collective polaritonic effects on chemical dynamics suppressed by disorder.” Physical Review Research 6, no. 1 (2024): 013222.
4. J. A. Campos-Gonzalez-Angulo, Y. R. Poh, M. Du, and J. Yuen-Zhou, Swinging between shine and shadow: Theoretical advances on thermally activated vibropolaritonic chemistry, J. Chem. Phys. 158, 230901 (2023). (*)
5. Z. Brawley, J. E. Yim ,S. Pannir-Sivajothi ,Y. Rui Poh, J. Yuen-Zhou, M. Sheldon, Sub-wavelength chemical imaging of a modified reaction due to vibrational strong coupling, 10.26434/chemrxiv-2023-gdmxl, under review.
6. S. Pannir-Sivajothi and J. Yuen-Zhou. “Blackbody radiation and thermal effects on chemical reactions and phase transitions in cavities,” arXiv:2402.01043 (2024), under review.
Bio: Joel Yuen-Zhou obtained his BSc in Chemistry and BSc in Mathematics from MIT in 2007 and his PhD in Chemical Physics from Harvard University in 2012 under the supervision of Prof. Alán Aspuru-Guzik. His PhD work involved a quantum information approach to ultrafast spectroscopy. His careers as an independent researcher started with his work as a postdoctoral fellow back at MIT focused on the development of nontrivial topological phases in excitonic and polaritonic systems. In 2015, he became faculty member at UC San Diego (UCSD) at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, where he is currently Associate Professor. During his time at UCSD, Joel has pioneered important contributions to the field of polariton chemistry. His work has received a number of awards including NSF Career (2017), DOE Early Career (2018), Blavatnik Finalist (2020), Camille Dreyfus (2021), and Sloan (2021). His current interests include the development of efficient solutions to the quantum dynamics of many-body problems, quantum sensing, and novel ways to control chemical reactions including photonic and electrochemical means.
Host: Prof. Micheline Soley