2021/02/26 by Xinyang Li, Arkajit Mandal, Pengfei Huo · 1 voice · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Engineering · #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41467-021-21610-9
openalex publication_date 2021/02/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
Recent experiments demonstrate the control of chemical reactivities by coupling molecules inside an optical microcavity. In contrast, transition state theory predicts no change of the reaction barrier height during this process. Here, we present a theoretical explanation of the cavity modification of the ground state reactivity in the vibrational strong coupling (VSC) regime in polariton chemistry. Our theoretical results suggest that the VSC kinetics modification is originated from the non-Markovian dynamics of the cavity radiation mode that couples to the molecule, leading to the dynamical caging effect of the reaction coordinate and the suppression of reaction rate constant for a specific range of photon frequency close to the barrier frequency. We use a simple analytical non-Markovian rate theory to describe a single molecular system coupled to a cavity mode. We demonstrate the accuracy of the rate theory by performing direct numerical calculations of the transmission coefficients with the same model of the molecule-cavity hybrid system. Our simulations and analytical theory provide a plausible explanation of the photon frequency dependent modification of the chemical reactivities in the VSC polariton chemistry.