Thanks

Thanks to all the participants for making the second edition of Molecular Polaritonics a success!

Info

After two years of delay due to the pandemic, the second edition of Molecular Polaritonics will be held as a “conventional” in-person workshop in Straubing, Germany, from September 12 to September 14, 2022.

Invited Speakers

• Hui Deng, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
• Erik Gauger, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
• Gerrit Groenhof, University of Jyväskylä, Finnland
• Felipe Herrera, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile
• Jonathan Keeling, University of St. Andrews, UK
• Stéphane Kéna-Cohen, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada
• Frieder Lindel, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
• Neepa Maitra, Rutgers University, Newark, USA
• Guido Pupillo, Université de Strasbourg, France
• Päivi Törmä, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
• Oriol Vendrell, Heidelberg University, Germany
• Ágnes Vibók, University of Debrecen, Hungary
• Joel Yuen-Zhou, University of California San Diego, USA

Roundtable Discussion Participants

• Rémi Avriller, Université de Bordeaux, France
• Markus Kowalewski, Stockholm University, Sweden
• Diego Martín Cano, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
• Michael Ruggenthaler, Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg, Germany
• Johannes Schachenmayer, Université de Strasbourg, France
• Timur Shegai, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

Hot Topic Speakers

• Oleg Kotov, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
• Michael Reitz, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, Germany
• Carlos Sánchez Muñoz, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
• Dominik Sidler, Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg, Germany
• Ruth H. Tichauer, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain

Organizers

• Johannes Feist, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
• Claudiu Genes, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, Germany

Introduction

Traditional nanophotonics is concerned with engineering material systems to control light on a nanometer scale. However, over the last years, it has become clear that the reverse is also possible, i.e., to engineer light modes so as to modify material properties and dynamics. Confining light modes to small volumes (optical or microwave cavities, waveguides, fibers, plasmonic structures, etc.) provides a platform for strong coherent light-matter interactions at the quantum level. Remarkably, this can be achieved even when no actual light is present in the system by engineering the electromagnetic vacuum and its fluctuations, chiefly through the effect of strong coupling, which occurs when the coherent energy exchange between a (confined) light mode and material excitations becomes faster than the decay and decoherence of either constituent. This creates a paradigmatic hybrid quantum system with eigenstates that have mixed light-matter character, so-called polaritons. Organic molecules present a particularly favorable type of emitter to achieve this regime even at room temperature due to their large dipole moments and stability. Polariton formation leads to changes in the excited-state and even ground-state character and energy levels, which can affect a wide range of properties, such as energy transport, photochemical reactions, and even thermally driven ground-state chemical reactions. At the same time, nuclear motion and exciton-phonon coupling strongly affects and determines molecular and material properties from single molecules to the meso- and macroscopic scale, and has been shown to play an important role also in the context of light-matter coupling.

This workshop aims to bring together researchers with expertise in complementary aspects of this highly interdisciplinary field, covering topics such as quantum optics & open quantum systems, quantum chemistry, condensed matter & many-body physics, and macroscopic QED. The goal is to discuss the current state of theoretical approaches and facilitate communication between different fields, as well as to understand fundamental aspects of the important mechanisms at play and to assess and discuss current and possible future applications and technological promises of molecular polaritonics. The workshop will be held in a highly interactive format, with ample time for discussions and informal interactions.

This year’s edition is the second one in a hopefully longer series following the success of Molecular Polaritonics 2019 (organized in July 2019 in Spain). Pdfs of talks and posters from the last edition can be found here.

Organizational information

The workshop will be held in the hotel “Genusshotel Wenisch” in Straubing, a small city in the Gäuboden region of Bavaria close to Munich and Nuremberg. All participants will stay at the workshop venue, and food will be provided there as well, starting with breakfast on Monday, Sep 12, until breakfast on Thursday, Sep 15. For further details and travel information see the venue page.

There is no registration fee, and all local costs (food and accommodation) are covered by the organizers. Travel to and from Straubing is not included, however. The workshop is supported by the MMUSCLES ERC grant, the Condensed Matter Physics Center (IFIMAC) at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light.

Registration is open until July 10, 2022.