Optomechanical heat transfer between molecules in a nanoplasmonic cavity

TL;DR

This paper investigates how nanoplasmonic cavities enable heat transfer between molecules via optomechanical interactions, revealing a controllable mechanism that can cool molecules more effectively than vibrational pumping.

Contribution

It introduces a new heat transfer mechanism mediated by plasmonic modes, allowing active control of molecular heat flow through external laser driving.

Findings

External driving induces effective molecule-molecule interactions.

The mechanism can cool hotter molecules more efficiently.

Heat transfer rate is controllable via laser parameters.

Abstract

We explore whether localized surface plasmon polariton modes can transfer heat between molecules placed in the hot spot of a nanoplasmonic cavity through optomechanical interaction with the molecular vibrations. We demonstrate that external driving of the plasmon resonance indeed induces an effective molecule-molecule interaction corresponding to a new heat transfer mechanism, which can even be more effective in cooling the hotter molecule than its heating due to the vibrational pumping by the plasmon. This novel mechanism allows to actively control the rate of heat flow between molecules through the intensity and frequency of the driving laser.