Upcoming Events
April 10, 2026 | INQUIRE Seminar
Marissa Weichman, Princeton University
Time: TBD
Location: TBD
Details: The Institute for Quantum Information Research and Engineering (INQUIRE) is pleased to welcome Professor Marissa Weichman from Princeton University, hosted by Professor Roel Tempelaar.
Title: New Experimental Platforms for Molecular Polaritonics
Abstract: Polaritons are hybrid light-matter states that arise from strong interactions between the confined electromagnetic field of an optical cavity and an ensemble of intracavity molecules. Molecules under such strong cavity coupling appear to demonstrate distinct reactivity and photochemistry from molecules in free space, but the mechanisms and scope of these phenomena remain poorly understood. I will discuss new experimental approaches that my lab has developed to investigate the behavior of simple benchmark cavity-coupled systems, with the goal of understanding exactly how and when reactive trajectories may be influenced by strong light-matter interactions.
While polaritons are now well-established in solution-phase and solid-state systems, they had not been previously reported in isolated gas-phase molecules, where attaining sufficiently strong light-matter interactions is a challenge. We access the strong coupling regime in an intracavity cryogenic buffer gas cell optimized for the preparation of simultaneously cold and dense ensembles and report proof-of-principle demonstrations of rovibrational strong coupling in methane and rovibronic strong coupling in molecular iodine. In ongoing work, we are harnessing this infrastructure as a testbed for fundamental studies of the nonlinear spectroscopy, photophysics, and chemistry of polaritonic states.
We are also searching for signatures of cavity-altered dynamics in benchmark condensed-phase systems using ultrafast spectroscopy. I will touch on our work on both solution-phase bimolecular reaction dynamics under vibrational strong coupling and excited state relaxation dynamics in thin films under electronic strong coupling. I will also detail our various approaches to track the dynamics of these species without confounding spectroscopic artifacts, and comment on when we need to invoke quantum optics versus classical cavity physics to explain our observations.
About Prof. Weichman: Marissa Weichman is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University. Marissa was born in Pasadena, CA and raised in Denver, CO and Bedford, MA. She obtained her B.S. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 2012, where she performed undergraduate research with Prof. Mitchio Okumura. She pursued a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley where she developed high-resolution anion photoelectron imaging spectroscopy as an NSF graduate research fellow in Prof. Dan Neumark’s group. Marissa completed her PhD in 2017 and was awarded the 2018 Justin Jankunas Doctoral Dissertation Award in Chemical Physics from the American Physical Society for her thesis work. Marissa then joined Dr. Jun Ye’s group as a NIST/NRC postdoctoral research fellow at JILA/CU Boulder, working on precision cavity-enhanced frequency comb spectroscopy of large molecules. Marissa began her independent career at Princeton in July 2020. Her lab uses fundamental chemical physics and spectroscopy to probe the behavior of complex molecular systems and explores new ways to steer molecular processes using light. Her group’s work has been recognized with a 2022 Department of Energy Early Career award, a 2023 NSF CAREER award, a 2023 Packard Foundation fellowship, a 2024 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and a 2025 Cottrell Scholar Award.
Hosted by Roel Tempelaar.
May 7, 2026 | INQUIRE & Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
Shuolong Yang, University of Chicago
Time: 4:00pm - 5:00pm (CT)
Location: Technological Institute, F160 | 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (map | directions)
Details: The Institute for Quantum Information Research and Engineering (INQUIRE) is pleased to welcome Professor Shuolong Yang from the University of Chicago.