Controlling Chemistry with Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics

The demonstration of strong and ultrastrong coupling regimes of cavity QED with organic molecules has opened new routes to control chemical dynamics at the nanoscale. Based on the Holstein-Tavis-Cummings (HTC) model of organic cavities, we prove analytically and confirm numerically that strong resonant cavity-molecule coupling can effectively decouple electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom in a disordered molecular ensemble. This type of polaron decoupling effectively prevents nuclear reorganization in the excited electronic state, and can potentially influence charge and energy transfer processes in molecular ensembles. As an example, we show that polaron decoupling can lead to an exponential enhancement of intramolecular electron transfer rates between donor and acceptor groups in comparison with free-space reactions, which may find applications in the development of novel optoelectronic devices.

[1] F. Herrera and F. C. Spano, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 238301, 2016
[2] F. Herrera, F. C. Spano, Phys. Rev. Lett 118, 223601, 2017