Acceleration of Chemical Reactions in Hybrid One-Dimensional Photonic Crystals Based on High-Index Metamaterials

Abstract

Metamaterials with highly tunable refractive indices greatly enhance light-matter interaction in one-dimensional photonic crystals. As has been recently shown, the ionization energies of atoms placed in air voids of photonic crystals can be dramatically changed. The origin of the effect is the modification of the interaction of an electron with its own radiation field that gives rise to the change of the electron electromag- netic mass. For the first time the electromagnetic mass comes to play in describing physical processes. The mass correction is anisotropic and depends on the electron states. The photonic crystal mass correction is an observable and is described by an operator. The effect is strongly enhanced when the photonic crystal is made from highly tunable refractive index metamaterials, and the controllability of these materials gives rise to the controllability of the ionization energies and, hence, the physicochemical properties of atoms over a wide range. Thus, we assume that this quantum electrodynamic effect can be one of the main mechanisms for the acceleration of chemical reactions. In this work, the method of experimental verification of this effect based on the observation of shifts in the spectral lines of helium atoms injected in the gas phase in air voids of a hybrid one-dimensional photonic crystal by optical spectroscopy techniques is suggested. We believe that experimental verification of the effect under study can open new opportunities for the study of chemical and biochemical reactions and for the synthesis exceptional chemical compounds in confined environment that could be used in pharmaceutics and medical applications.