Harnessing strong light-matter interactions to control chemical reactions in confined electromagnetic fields offers a promising route toward deepening our understanding of chemical dynamics at the collective quantum-mechanical level, with potential implications for future chemical synthesis paradigms. Achieving this goal, however, requires an in-depth mechanistic understanding of underlying dynamical processes. As a step in this direction, we present a systematic and numerically exact quantum dynamical study of cooperative reaction dynamics inside an optical microcavity. Using a hierarchy of model systems with increasing complexity, we elucidate how cavity-modified reactivity emerges from-and is highly sensitive to-subtle structural and environmental variations. Our models consist of optically dark reactive molecules, each represented by a symmetric double well potential, coupled to infrared-active non-reactive intramolecular or solvent vibrational modes, as well as their respective dissipative environments. Our results demonstrate that cavity-induced rate modifications arise from a delicate interplay among mode hybridization in strong-coupling regimes, the dynamical balance of all participating energy exchange processes, and quantum interference between multiple fluctuation-dissipation-mediated reaction pathways enabled by collective cavity coupling. By continuously tuning a single system parameter or introducing molecular collectivity, we observe qualitatively distinct rate modification profiles as functions of the cavity frequency, including resonant rate enhancement, resonant rate suppression, hybridization-induced peak splitting, and, notably, asymmetric Fano-type line shapes in which enhancement peaks and suppression dips coexist within a narrow resonance window, highlighting the important role of quantum interference in cavity-modified chemical reactivity.
Harnessing strong light-matter interactions to control chemical reactions in confined electromagnetic fields offers a promising route toward deepening our understanding of chemical dynamics at the collective quantum-mechanical level, with potential implications for future chemical synthesis paradigms. Achieving this goal, however, requires an in-depth mechanistic understanding of underlying dynamical processes. As a step in this direction, we present a systematic and numerically exact quantum dynamical study of cooperative reaction dynamics inside an optical microcavity. Using a hierarchy of model systems with increasing complexity, we elucidate how cavity-modified reactivity emerges from-and is highly sensitive to-subtle structural and environmental variations. Our models consist of optically dark reactive molecules, each represented by a symmetric double well potential, coupled to infrared-active non-reactive intramolecular or solvent vibrational modes, as well as their respective dissipative environments. Our results demonstrate that cavity-induced rate modifications arise from a delicate interplay among mode hybridization in strong-coupling regimes, the dynamical balance of all participating energy exchange processes, and quantum interference between multiple fluctuation-dissipation-mediated reaction pathways enabled by collective cavity coupling. By continuously tuning a single system parameter or introducing molecular collectivity, we observe qualitatively distinct rate modification profiles as functions of the cavity frequency, including resonant rate enhancement, resonant rate suppression, hybridization-induced peak splitting, and, notably, asymmetric Fano-type line shapes in which enhancement peaks and suppression dips coexist within a narrow resonance window, highlighting the important role of quantum interference in cavity-modified chemical reactivity.
Harnessing strong light-matter interactions to control chemical reactions in confined electromagnetic fields offers a promising route toward deepening our understanding of chemical dynamics at the collective quantum-mechanical level, with potential implications for future chemical synthesis paradigms. Achieving this goal, however, requires an in-depth mechanistic understanding of the underlying dynamical processes. As a step in this direction, we present a systematic and numerically exact quantum dynamical study of cooperative reaction dynamics inside an optical microcavity. Using a hierarchy of model systems with increasing complexity, we elucidate how cavity-modified reactivity emerges from-and is highly sensitive to-subtle structural and environmental variations. Our models consist of optically dark reactive molecules, each represented by a symmetric double well potential, coupled to infrared-active non-reactive intramolecular or solvent vibrational modes, as well as their respective dissipative environments. Our results demonstrate that cavity-induced rate modifications arise from a delicate interplay among mode hybridization in strong-coupling regimes, the dynamical balance of all participating energy exchange processes, and quantum interference between multiple fluctuation-dissipation-mediated reaction pathways enabled by collective cavity coupling. By continuously tuning a single system parameter or introducing molecular collectivity, we observe qualitatively distinct rate modification profiles as functions of the cavity frequency, including resonant rate enhancement, resonant rate suppression, hybridization-induced peak splitting, and, notably, asymmetric Fano-type line shapes in which enhancement peaks and suppression dips coexist within a narrow resonance window, highlighting the important role of quantum interference in cavity-modified chemical reactivity.
In this work, we investigate the influence of light-matter coupling on reaction dynamics and equilibrium properties of a single molecule inside an optical cavity. The reactive molecule is modeled using a triple-well potential, allowing two competing reaction pathways that yield distinct products. Dynamical and equilibrium simulations are performed using the numerically exact hierarchical equations of motion approach in real- and imaginary-time formulations, respectively, both implemented with tree tensor network decomposition schemes. We consider two illustrative cases: one dominated by slow kinetics and another by ultrafast processes. Our results demonstrate that the rates of ground-state reaction pathways can be selectively enhanced when the cavity frequency is tuned into resonance with a vibrational transition directly leading to the formation of the corresponding product, even when that transition is spectroscopically dark. However, tuning cavity frequency to match an absorption-dominant transition shared across both reaction pathways does not necessarily result in pronounced rate enhancements and selectivity. Together with an additional analysis using an asymmetric double-well model, we highlight the greater complexity of underlying factors governing chemical reactivity, which extend beyond considerations of transition dipole strengths and thermal population distributions that shape linear spectroscopy. Furthermore, we found that in all scenarios, the equilibrium populations remain unchanged when the molecule is moved into the cavity, regardless of the cavity frequency. Thus, our proof-of-concept study confirms at a fully quantum-mechanical level that cavity-induced modifications of chemical reactivities in resonant conditions arise from dynamical and non-equilibrium interactions between the cavity mode and molecular vibrations, rather than from the significant changes in equilibrium properties.
In this work, we investigate the influence of light-matter coupling on reaction dynamics and equilibrium properties of a single molecule inside an optical cavity. The reactive molecule is modeled using a triple-well potential, allowing two competing reaction pathways that yield distinct products. Dynamical and equilibrium simulations are performed using the numerically exact hierarchical equations of motion approach in real- and imaginary-time formulations, respectively, both implemented with tree tensor network decomposition schemes. We consider two illustrative cases: one dominated by slow kinetics and another by ultrafast processes. Our results demonstrate that the rates of ground-state reaction pathways can be selectively enhanced when the cavity frequency is tuned into resonance with a vibrational transition directly leading to the formation of the corresponding product, even when that transition is spectroscopically dark. However, tuning cavity frequency to match an absorption-dominant transition shared across both reaction pathways does not necessarily result in pronounced rate enhancements and selectivity. Together with an additional analysis using an asymmetric double-well model, we highlight the greater complexity of underlying factors governing chemical reactivity, which extend beyond considerations of transition dipole strengths and thermal population distributions that shape linear spectroscopy. Furthermore, we found that in all scenarios, the equilibrium populations remain unchanged when the molecule is moved into the cavity, regardless of the cavity frequency. Thus, our proof-of-concept study confirms at a fully quantum-mechanical level that cavity-induced modifications of chemical reactivities in resonant conditions arise from dynamical and non-equilibrium interactions between the cavity mode and molecular vibrations, rather than from the significant changes in equilibrium properties.
Experiments have shown that, by tuning a microcavity to resonance with a vibrational mode of the molecules contained within it, one can modify chemical properties, such as reaction rates. This gives rise to the exciting prospect of steering chemical reactivity, just by placing a pair of carefully spaced mirrors around the reaction mixture. However, a decade after the first demonstration, the mechanism behind this effect remains ill-understood. Here, we show how vibrational strong coupling can lead to resonant modification of vibrationally-resolved London dispersion interactions. Employing a mixed quantum-classical dynamics scheme, we then show how this in turn can give rise to resonant rate enhancement in the case of two molecules strongly coupled to the cavity mode, for all regimes of solvent friction. The resonant changes of the London dispersion interaction seem to persist when increasing the number of molecules. Whether this also leads to altered reaction rates in the experimentally relevant collective limit remains an open question, as this regime falls outside the range of applicability of our mixed quantum-classical dynamics approach. Nevertheless, the framework presented here offers an exciting new avenue to explore, and hopefully bring us a step closer towards explaining the mechanism behind vibropolaritonic chemistry.
Modifications of chemical reaction rates via strong light-matter coupling at mid-infrared regime has attracted significant interest in physics and chemistry in recent years. However, despite numerous efforts, there is currently no general theory that can fully describe the available experimental evidence. We implement an open quantum system model to describe the suppression of the intracavity reaction rate for alcoholysis of phenyl isocyanate with cyclohexanol in infrared Fabry-Perot cavities. The model considers the three molecular modes observed in the infrared absorption spectrum of phenyl isocyanate in the region of interest. The results point out that suppression of intracavity reaction rates is modified when a cavity is resonant with specific molecular modes of the reactant [1]. We derive analytical expressions using a reduced model that explains the role of light-matter coherences and molecular disorder in the modifications of intracavity chemical processes. Our findings significantly improve our understanding of cavity-modified chemistry by tuning cavity modes with different molecular modes. [1] W.Ahn, J.F. Triana, F. Recabal, F. Herrera, B.S. Simpkins . Chemrxiv, wb6vs (2022)
Recent experiments suggest that strong light-matter coupling between molecules and cavity modes can significantly modify chemical reaction rates and yields. Despite multiple proposed mechanisms, a clear microscopic understanding of how vibrational strong coupling alters reaction kinetics remains incomplete. Here, we employ a general quantum-dynamical framework for analyzing competing reaction pathways in polaritonic chemistry by considering reaction coordinates with multiple relevant transition frequencies and general harmonic environments. We extend on a tensor-network formulation of the hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) method to compute probability currents between vibrational states, leveraging a concise formulation for effective spectral densities and a controlled compression of Markovian bath modes into system-level jump operators. This allows us to decompose the resulting state-to-state probability currents, revealing how cavity-induced changes in individual transitions propagate through multistep reaction networks. We find that these local modifications can alter kinetic bottlenecks and selectively redistribute reaction flux between competing pathways, changing branching ratios under irreversible conditions without substantially affecting the equilibrium yield in the reversible regime. Finally, for coupled reaction-coordinate, spectator-mode, and cavity environments, we find structured, asymmetric rate profiles arising from interference between hybridized decay channels. Together, these results provide a mechanistic framework for understanding pathway-specific chemical reactivity under vibrational strong coupling.