About the paper
Our paper, “Nonlinear Freezing of Vibrational Polariton Transport via Mesoscale Simulations,” has been accepted by Nano Letters (Ji & Li, 2026).
Using mesoscale cavity molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate how vibrational polaritons transport energy in planar optical microcavities. We identify a nonlinear freezing mechanism: under strong pumping, initially propagating upper polaritons stop moving and localize energy in molecules at specific locations.
This behavior arises from pump-induced breaking of in-plane translation symmetry, which redirects the polariton population toward states with vanishing group velocities. These results suggest new ways to explore and control energy transport under vibrational strong coupling.
The preprint is available on arXiv.
