Speaker
Description
The polaritonic optical response of molecules positioned in optical cavities is strongly influenced not only by the molecule-cavity modes coupling and the detuning between the photon and the emitter's transition frequency, but also by the spectral distribution of the molecular emitters (that outside the cavity determine the observed lineshape). While the effect of inhomogeneous broadening of the emitter has been investigated in the past, with interesting observations such that polaritons do not inherit the static disorder broadening, a general analytical theory describing such phenomenon is absent. In this talk I will discuss our recent work where we apply the Kubo-Anderson stochastic theory of molecular spectral lineshape to the case of polaritons formed in the collective strong coupling regime. I will discuss both the fast and slow limits of the random frequency modulation of the emitter as well as the intermediate regime and show how the interplay between the characteristic timescales of the cavity and the molecular disorder is expressed in the observed polaritons lineshapes.
