Plasmonics for Vibrational Strong Coupling and Resonant Thermal Energy Transport

Metamaterials and metasurfaces provide an unprecedented platform for engineering strong lightmatter interactions at the nanoscale, enabling tailored optical and thermal functionalities beyond conventional materials. Our research explores how plasmonic metasurfaces serve as tunable platforms for vibrational strong coupling (VSC), where the hybridization of molecular vibrational modes with infrared (IR) cavity resonances leads to modified chemical reactivity, phase transitions, and energy redistribution pathways. Using nanofabricated plasmonic architectures, we demonstrate highly localized and spectrally tunable coupling that enables multi-mode vibrational hybridization, dark state engineering, and angle-independent interactions—key advances over traditional Fabry-Pérot cavities. Our experimental approach combines these metasurfaces with high-resolution Raman and IR spectroscopies to probe dynamic light-matter interactions and non-equilibrium thermal effects. We show that resonant IR energy transport in these systems can significantly alter thermal phase transitions, such as the dehydration of CuSO₄⁺5H₂O, by enhancing localized heat transfer and suppressing thermal gradients. These findings suggest that metasurface-mediated polariton interactions provide a new route for modifying energy transport and reaction kinetics, distinct from conventional photochemical and thermochemical mechanisms. The implications of this work extend to metadevices for quantum thermal control, tunable infrared emission, and polaritonic engineering, highlighting the role of metamaterials in expanding the frontier of molecular-scale energy manipulation. This presentation will discuss how leveraging plasmonic nanophotonics and polaritonic metasurfaces opens new directions in metadevice applications, including energy-efficient catalysis, mode-selective chemistry, and super-Planckian thermal emission. Our results underscore the potential of strongly coupled metasystems to revolutionize light-matter interaction strategies across photonic, infrared, and quantum metamaterials.