Metamaterial analogues of strongly coupled molecular ensembles

Abstract

The formation of polariton modes due to the strong coupling of light and matter has led to exciting developments in physics, chemistry and materials science. The potential to modify the properties of molecular materials by strongly coupling molecules to a confined light f ield is so far-reaching and so attractive that a new field known as ‘polaritonic chemistry’ is now emerging. However, the molecular scale of the materials involved makes probing strong coupling at the individual resonator level extremely challenging. Here we offer a complimentary approach based upon metamaterials, an approach that enables us to use cm-scale structures, thereby opening a new way to explore strong coupling phenomena. As proof-of-principle we show that meta-molecules placed inside a radio-frequency cavity may exhibit strong coupling, and show that near-field radio-frequency techniques allow us, for the first time, to probe the response of individual meta-molecules under strong coupling conditions.