The Alchemy of Vacuum - Hybridizing Light and Matter -

Strong coupling of light and matter can give rise to a multitude of exciting physical and chemical effects through the formation of delocalized hybrid light-matter states. When molecular materials with high transition dipole moments are placed in the confined fields of metallic microcavities or surface plasmons, splittings approaching 1 eV are observed in the eigen states due to the interaction with the vacuum electromagnetic field. This leads to fundamental changes in the properties of the coupled system even in the dark.  While strong coupling has been extensively studied due to the potential it offers in physics, the implications for molecular and material science have remained mostly unexplored. After introducing the fundamental concepts, examples of modified properties under strong coupling, such as chemical reactivity, enhanced charge transport in organic semiconductors and non-radiative energy transfer, will be presented. The coupling of specific molecular vibrations, opens the possibility of site selective chemistry and “cavity catalysis”.  An outlook will be given about the broad potential of hybrid light-matter states for molecular and material science.