The Alchemy of Emptiness

The Research Center conferences aim to raise awareness within the community about new topics and technological innovations. 

Aimed at a wide audience—students and researchers from all disciplines—they draw on the multidisciplinary expertise of the MIPS Center, partner centers and structures, and national and international teams.

Over the past decade, the possibility of modifying material and chemical properties using hybrid light-matter states has attracted considerable interest. Such hybrid states can be generated by strongly coupling the electronic or vibrational transitions of a material with the spatially confined electromagnetic field of an optical resonator. It is particularly remarkable that this phenomenon can occur even in the dark, since the coupling involves the resonator’s zero-point electromagnetic fluctuations, known as the vacuum field.

After introducing the fundamental concepts, examples of altered properties in strongly coupled systems—such as chemical reactivity, charge and energy transport, and magnetism—will be presented to illustrate the vast potential of light-matter states.

This event is part of the MIPS Research monthly seminar series, which aims to foster scientific exchange and highlight new research topics and technological innovations.

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