# Electronic friction in interacting systems

## TL;DR

This paper investigates how strong light-matter interactions influence electronic friction in molecular junctions, comparing different theoretical approaches and demonstrating the potential for controlling friction via bias and cavity pumping.

## Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of electronic friction under strong light-matter coupling using Hubbard NEGF simulations and compares with other methods, highlighting limitations and control possibilities.

## Key findings

- Mean-field NEGF fails at strong interactions
- Generalized Head-Gordon and Tully are limited to specific conditions
- Electronic friction shows non-monotonic dependence on bias and pumping intensity

## Abstract

We consider effects of strong light-matter interaction on electronic friction in molecular junctions within generic model of single molecule nano cavity junction. Results of the Hubbard NEGF simulations are compared with mean-field NEGF and generalized Head-Gordon and Tully approaches. Mean-field NEGF is shown to fail qualitatively at strong intra-system interactions, while accuracy of the generalized Head-Gordon and Tully results is restricted to situations of well separated intra-molecular excitations, when bath induced coherences are negligible. Numerical results show effects of bias and cavity mode pumping on electronic friction. We demonstrate non-monotonic behavior of the friction on the bias and intensity of the pumping field and indicate possibility of engineering friction control in single molecule junctions.