Electrochemical Control of Strong Coupling of CdSe Exciton-Polaritons in Plasmonic Cavities

This work reports in situ (active) electrochemical control over the coupling strength between semiconducting nanoplatelets and a plasmonic cavity. We found that by applying a reductive bias to an Al nanoparticle lattice working electrode the number of CdSe nanoplatelet emitters that can couple to the cavity is decreased. Strong coupling can be reversibly recovered by discharging the lattice at oxidative potentials relative to the conduction band edge reduction potential of the emitters. By correlating the number of electrons added or removed with the measured coupling strength, we identified that loss and recovery of strong coupling are likely hindered by side processes that trap and/or inhibit electrons from populating the nanoplatelet conduction band. These findings demonstrate tunable, external control of strong coupling and offer prospects to tune selectivity in chemical reactions.