Over the last several years, Musser and colleagues at the University of Sheffield have explored a method of creating polaritons via tiny sandwich structures of mirrors, called microcavities, that trap light and force it to interact with excitons вЂ“ mobile bundles of energy that consist of a bound electron-hole pair.

The lead author is Raj Pandya of the University of Cambridge. The team's paper, вЂњ Tuning the Coherent Propagation of Organic Exciton-Polaritons through Dark State Delocalization,вЂќ published April 27 in Advanced Science. This вЂњthrottleвЂќ can move polaritons from a near standstill to something approaching the speed of light and increase their range вЂ“ an approach that could eventually lead to more efficient solar cells, sensors and LEDs. However, they are difficult to control, and much of their behavior is a mystery.ДЄ project led by Andrew Musser, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, has found a way to tune the speed of this energy flow. They are both compatible with modern electronics but also move speedily, thanks to their photonic origins.

These hybrid particles combine light and molecules of organic material, making them ideal vessels for energy transfer in organic semiconductors.

Polaritons offer the best of two very different worlds.

Light particles