Theory predicts UV/vis-to-IR photonic down conversion mediated by excited state vibrational polaritons.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37558658.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-40400-z and PMC identifier 10412565.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
This work proposes a photophysical phenomenon whereby ultraviolet/visible (UV/vis) excitation of a molecule involving a Franck-Condon (FC) active vibration yields infrared (IR) emission by strong coupling to an optical cavity. The resulting UV/vis-to-IR photonic down conversion process is mediated by vibrational polaritons in the electronic excited state potential. It is shown that the formation of excited state vibrational polaritons (ESVP) via UV/vis excitation only involve vibrational modes with both a non-zero FC activity and IR activity in the excited state. Density functional theory calculations are used to identify 1-Pyreneacetic acid as a molecule with this property and the dynamics of ESVP are modeled. Overall, this work introduces an avenue of polariton chemistry where excited state dynamics are influenced by the formation of vibrational polaritons. Along with this, the UV/vis-to-IR photonic down conversion is potentially useful in both sensing excited state vibrations and quantum transduction schemes.