Dissociation dynamics of a diatomic molecule in an optical cavity

TL;DR

This study investigates how coupling a diatomic molecule to an optical cavity affects its dissociation, revealing that certain cavity conditions suppress dissociation through resonance effects, highlighting complex vibrational energy transfer mechanisms.

Contribution

It demonstrates the suppression of molecular dissociation in an optical cavity due to nonlinear resonance disappearance, emphasizing the role of dipole nonlinearity in vibrational dynamics.

Findings

Dissociation probability decreases significantly at specific cavity frequencies.

Suppression linked to disappearance of classical phase space resonances.

Nonlinear dipole functions are essential for resonance effects.

Abstract

We study the dissociation dynamics of a diatomic molecule, modeled as a Morse oscillator, coupled to an optical cavity. In both classical and quantum dynamics simulations, a marked suppression of the dissociation probability is observed for cavity frequencies significantly below the fundamental transition frequency of the molecule. We show that the suppression in the probability occurs when certain key nonlinear resonances in the classical phase space of the molecule disappear, possible only when the dipole function is nonlinear. This study demonstrates the complexity of cavity-molecule vibrational energy transfer in the anharmonic limit and suggests further studies are necessary to understand resonance effects in experiments of vibrational polariton chemistry.