When light and matter interact, quasiparticles called polaritons can form. Polaritons can change a material’s chemical reactivity or its electronic properties, but the details behind how those changes occur remain unknown. A new finding by Rakesh Arul and colleagues at the University of Cambridge could help change that [1, 2]. The team has uncovered an interaction regime where the light–matter coupling strength significantly exceeds that seen in previous experiments. Arul says that the discovery could improve researchers’ understanding of how polaritons induce material changes and could allow the exploration of a wider range of these quasiparticles.
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