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Updated: Oct 21, 2025
A Technical Guide for Performing Spectroscopic Measurements on Metal-Organic Frameworks
Published on: April 28, 2023
Strong Coupling Between Plasmons and Molecular Excitons in Metal-Organic Frameworks.
Alexander D Sample, Jun Guan, Jingtian Hu
1Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, United States.
This study shows strong coupling between molecular emitters in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and nanoparticle (NP) lattices, creating a polariton. This hybrid system opens new possibilities for excitonic materials in polariton chemistry.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Chemistry
- Optics
Background:
- Strong coupling between light and matter is crucial for advanced optical devices.
- Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) offer ordered structures for hosting molecular emitters.
- Plasmonic nanoparticle (NP) lattices provide enhanced light-matter interactions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate strong coupling in a hybrid system of MOFs and plasmonic NPs.
- To explore the formation and properties of polaritons in this system.
- To demonstrate the potential of MOFs as excitonic materials for polariton chemistry.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of MOF films with porphyrin-derived ligands on silver NP arrays.
- Angle-resolved optical measurements to study polariton formation.
- Transient absorption spectroscopy to analyze polariton decay dynamics.
- Solvent infiltration to tune coupling strength via refractive index changes.
Main Results:
- Observed formation of a lower-energy polariton in the MOF-NP lattice.
- Calculated a Rabi splitting of 110 meV, indicating strong coupling.
- Demonstrated systematic control of coupling strength by altering solvent refractive index.
- Identified distinct fast and slow decay components of the lower polariton due to energy transfer.
Conclusions:
- MOFs can act as effective excitonic materials for creating polaritons.
- The MOF-NP hybrid system enables tunable light-matter interactions.
- This work paves the way for novel applications in polariton chemistry and optics.
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