Beyond the exciton: Shaping molecular energy landscapes using polaritons

Abstract

This project aims to deliver a fundamental understanding of polariton-mediated light and heat energy transfer in molecular systems, paving the way for their exploitation in solar cells and chemical catalysis. Controlling energy flow within and between molecules is one of the challenges of molecular science. Such control allows concentration of light energy for solar harvesting and direction of thermal energy for site-selective chemistry. Recent work shows that molecular polaritons, admixtures of light and molecules, are a new and unique tool to assert this control. This project aims to deliver genuinely disruptive improvements in solar cell efficiency using polaritons.