Superabsorption in an organic microcavity : towards a quantum battery

Funding: We thank the U.K. EPSRC for part funding this research via the Programme Grant 'Hybrid Polaritonics’ (EP/M025330/1). We also thank the Royal Society for a International Exchange Grant (IES\R3\170324) ‘Development of BODIPY dyes for strongly coupled microcavities’. K.M. thanks the University of Sheffield for a PhD studentship via the EPSRC DTG account x/012169-15. D. R. acknowledges studentship funding from EPSRC under grant no. EP/L015110/1. T.V. and L.G. thank the Regione Lombardia Funding project IZEB. J.Q.Q. acknowledges the Ramsay fellowship and the Centre for Nanoscale BioPhotonics Family Friendly Fund, for financial support of this work.The rate at which matter emits or absorbs light can be modified by its environment, as markedly exemplified by the widely studied phenomenon of superradiance. The reverse process, superabsorption, is harder to demonstrate because of the challenges of probing ultrafast processes and has only been seen for small numbers of atoms. Its central idea—superextensive scaling of absorption, meaning larger systems absorb faster—is also the key idea underpinning quantum batteries. Here, we implement experimentally a paradigmatic model of a quantum battery, constructed of a microcavity enclosing a molecular dye. Ultrafast optical spectroscopy allows us to observe charging dynamics at femtosecond resolution to demonstrate superextensive charging rates and storage capacity, in agreement with our theoretical modeling. We find that decoherence plays an important role in stabilizing energy storage. Our work opens future opportunities for harnessing collective effects in light-matter coupling for nanoscale energy capture, storage, and transport technologies.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe