Exploring Electrical Conductance of Amorphous Non-conducting Polymers under Vibrational Strong Coupling

Speaker

Dr. Thomas Anoop, Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India

Abstract

Exploring Electrical Conductance of Amorphous Non-conducting Polymers under Vibrational Strong Coupling

Light-matter strong coupling is emerging as an exciting area of research in chemical and material sciences. Under strong coupling conditions, molecular transition dipoles interact with the electromagnetic vacuum states of a cavity by exchanging photons to form the so-called polaritonic states.1 Interestingly, these quantum light-matter interactions are capable of modifying the matter properties2 as well as changing reactive landscapes.3,4 In my talk, I present how a serendipitous experiment led us to the finding that the vibrational strong coupling (VSC) of amorphous non-conducting polymers such as polystyrene, deuterated polystyrene, poly (benzyl methacrylate), and a few other polystyrene derivatives enhance the electrical conductance by orders of magnitude.5 Remarkably, the electrical conductance enhancement in these polymers is selective to the VSC of its aromatic C-H(D) out-of-plane bending vibrational modes. The conductance characteristics vary from temperature-dependent to -independent based on the strong coupling strength. The electrical characterizations are performed without external light excitation, demonstrating the role of quantum light in enhancing long-range transport, even in amorphous non-conducting polymers.

References:

(1)  Genet, C., et al., Phys. Today 2021, 74, 42–48.

(2)  Garcia-Vidal, F. J., et al.,  Science 2021, 373, 6551.

(3)  Thomas, A., et al., Science 2019, 363, 615–619.

(4)  Ahn, W., et al., Science 2023, 380, 1165–1168.

(5)  Kumar, S., et al., arXiv 2023. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2303.03777