Ground State Photochemistry

In strong light-matter coupling, localised surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) are mixed with excitons to form plexcitonic states, which have different energies to those of the separate LSPRs and excitons. Thus, strong light-matter coupling allows us to modify the energy landscapes for chemical reactions, by creating new reaction pathways with reduced activation energies. Moreover, plexcitons are oscillators; consequently, their ground states have non-zero energies. In principle, the properties of these ground states can be manipulated via synergistic control of the properties of the molecular excitons and the LSPR, and used to manipulate the pathways for photochemical reactions.
In this project, you will design nanostructured plasmonic assemblies containing photoreactive molecules that can be used to drive entirely new kinds of chemical reaction. Plasmonic nanostructures will be fabricated by attaching metal nanoparticles to atomic force microscope probes and by using interferometric lithography. By control of the fabrication process you will create LSPRs with tailored properties designed to interact with photoactive molecules. Chemical reactivity will be characterised using a variety of spectroscopic and scanning probe microscopy methods, and in collaboration with researchers at Exeter University, the influence of strong light-matter coupling on the energy landscapes for photochemical reactions will be explored