IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-59607-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dynamics of a light-driven molecular rotary motor in an optical cavity

Author

Listed:
  • In Seong Lee

    (Institute for Basic Science (IBS))

  • Michael Filatov

    (Institute for Basic Science (IBS))

  • Seung Kyu Min

    (Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
    Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST))

Abstract

Light-driven rotary molecular motors transform the energy of light to mechanical motion (rotation) of one part of the molecule with respect to another. For a long while, various stimuli orthogonal to the motor’s source of energy were used to manipulate its operational characteristics; such as the speed of rotation. However, these stimuli employed predominantly chemical means and were difficult to apply in situ during the motor’s operation. Here, we show that the characteristics of the excited state decay in molecular motor molecules can be altered due to strong light-matter interactions occurring in optical cavities. By performing nonadiabatic simulations of the motor’s photodynamics in the presence of strong coupling with a cavity mode, we find that the coupling with a mode detuned off resonance with the molecular optical transition offers a means to considerably increase the excited state decay lifetime and to either inhibit or slow down the motor’s rotation.

Suggested Citation

  • In Seong Lee & Michael Filatov & Seung Kyu Min, 2025. "Dynamics of a light-driven molecular rotary motor in an optical cavity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59607-3
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59607-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59607-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-59607-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Fregoni & G. Granucci & E. Coccia & M. Persico & S. Corni, 2018. "Manipulating azobenzene photoisomerization through strong light–molecule coupling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. L. Pfeifer & S. Crespi & P. Meulen & J. Kemmink & R. M. Scheek & M. F. Hilbers & W. J. Buma & B. L. Feringa, 2022. "Controlling forward and backward rotary molecular motion on demand," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Rohit Chikkaraddy & Bart de Nijs & Felix Benz & Steven J. Barrow & Oren A. Scherman & Edina Rosta & Angela Demetriadou & Peter Fox & Ortwin Hess & Jeremy J. Baumberg, 2016. "Single-molecule strong coupling at room temperature in plasmonic nanocavities," Nature, Nature, vol. 535(7610), pages 127-130, July.
    4. Yijun Zheng & Mitchell K. L. Han & Renping Zhao & Johanna Blass & Jingnan Zhang & Dennis W. Zhou & Jean-Rémy Colard-Itté & Damien Dattler & Arzu Çolak & Markus Hoth & Andrés J. García & Bin Qu & Rolan, 2021. "Optoregulated force application to cellular receptors using molecular motors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Michael Filatov(Gulak) & Marco Paolino & Robin Pierron & Andrea Cappelli & Gianluca Giorgi & Jérémie Léonard & Miquel Huix-Rotllant & Nicolas Ferré & Xuchun Yang & Danil Kaliakin & Alejandro Blanco-Go, 2022. "Towards the engineering of a photon-only two-stroke rotary molecular motor," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Kerry J. Vahala, 2003. "Optical microcavities," Nature, Nature, vol. 424(6950), pages 839-846, August.
    7. Nagatoshi Koumura & Robert W. J. Zijlstra & Richard A. van Delden & Nobuyuki Harada & Ben L. Feringa, 1999. "Light-driven monodirectional molecular rotor," Nature, Nature, vol. 401(6749), pages 152-155, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rosario R. Riso & Tor S. Haugland & Enrico Ronca & Henrik Koch, 2022. "Molecular orbital theory in cavity QED environments," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Zhengyi Lu & Jiamin Ji & Haiming Ye & Hao Zhang & Shunping Zhang & Hongxing Xu, 2024. "Quantifying the ultimate limit of plasmonic near-field enhancement," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Fuhuan Shen & Zhenghe Zhang & Yaoqiang Zhou & Jingwen Ma & Kun Chen & Huanjun Chen & Shaojun Wang & Jianbin Xu & Zefeng Chen, 2022. "Transition metal dichalcogenide metaphotonic and self-coupled polaritonic platform grown by chemical vapor deposition," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. Shima Rajabali & Sergej Markmann & Elsa Jöchl & Mattias Beck & Christian A. Lehner & Werner Wegscheider & Jérôme Faist & Giacomo Scalari, 2022. "An ultrastrongly coupled single terahertz meta-atom," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    5. Yeon Ui Lee & Shilong Li & G. Bimananda M. Wisna & Junxiang Zhao & Yuan Zeng & Andrea R. Tao & Zhaowei Liu, 2022. "Hyperbolic material enhanced scattering nanoscopy for label-free super-resolution imaging," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    6. Nicholas A. Güsken & Ming Fu & Maximilian Zapf & Michael P. Nielsen & Paul Dichtl & Robert Röder & Alex S. Clark & Stefan A. Maier & Carsten Ronning & Rupert F. Oulton, 2023. "Emission enhancement of erbium in a reverse nanofocusing waveguide," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Xin Sun & Jin-Ku Bai & Yu-Dong Yang & Ke-Lin Zhu & Jia-Qi Liang & Xin-Yue Wang & Jun-Feng Xiang & Xiang Hao & Tong-Ling Liang & Ai-Jiao Guan & Ning-Ning Wu & Han-Yuan Gong, 2024. "Controlled interconversion of macrocyclic atropisomers via defined intermediates," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Tomoki Nakajima & Shohei Tashiro & Masahiro Ehara & Mitsuhiko Shionoya, 2023. "Selective synthesis of tightly- and loosely-twisted metallomacrocycle isomers towards precise control of helicity inversion motion," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    9. A. Hashemi & K. Busch & D. N. Christodoulides & S. K. Ozdemir & R. El-Ganainy, 2022. "Linear response theory of open systems with exceptional points," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    10. Xiang-Dong Chen & En-Hui Wang & Long-Kun Shan & Ce Feng & Yu Zheng & Yang Dong & Guang-Can Guo & Fang-Wen Sun, 2021. "Focusing the electromagnetic field to 10−6λ for ultra-high enhancement of field-matter interaction," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-7, December.
    11. Longlong Yang & Yu Yuan & Bowen Fu & Jingnan Yang & Danjie Dai & Shushu Shi & Sai Yan & Rui Zhu & Xu Han & Hancong Li & Zhanchun Zuo & Can Wang & Yuan Huang & Kuijuan Jin & Qihuang Gong & Xiulai Xu, 2023. "Revealing broken valley symmetry of quantum emitters in WSe2 with chiral nanocavities," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    12. Joel Kuttruff & Marco Romanelli & Esteban Pedrueza-Villalmanzo & Jonas Allerbeck & Jacopo Fregoni & Valeria Saavedra-Becerril & Joakim Andréasson & Daniele Brida & Alexandre Dmitriev & Stefano Corni &, 2023. "Sub-picosecond collapse of molecular polaritons to pure molecular transition in plasmonic photoswitch-nanoantennas," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    13. Chi Zhang & Huatian Hu & Chunmiao Ma & Yawen Li & Xujie Wang & Dongyao Li & Artur Movsesyan & Zhiming Wang & Alexander Govorov & Quan Gan & Tao Ding, 2024. "Quantum plasmonics pushes chiral sensing limit to single molecules: a paradigm for chiral biodetections," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    14. Wihan Adi & Samir Rosas & Aidana Beisenova & Shovasis Kumar Biswas & Hongyan Mei & David A. Czaplewski & Filiz Yesilkoy, 2024. "Trapping light in air with membrane metasurfaces for vibrational strong coupling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    15. Kaihong Sun & Raphael F. Ribeiro, 2024. "Theoretical formulation of chemical equilibrium under vibrational strong coupling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    16. Junze Zhou & P. A. D. Gonçalves & Fabrizio Riminucci & Scott Dhuey & Edward S. Barnard & Adam Schwartzberg & F. Javier García de Abajo & Alexander Weber-Bargioni, 2024. "Probing plexciton emission from 2D materials on gold nanotrenches," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    17. Xing Zhao & Xiaojing Liu & Dexiang Chen & Guodong Shi & Guoqun Li & Xiao Tang & Xiangnan Zhu & Mingze Li & Lei Yao & Yunjia Wei & Wenzhe Song & Zixuan Sun & Xingce Fan & Zhixin Zhou & Teng Qiu & Qi Ha, 2024. "Plasmonic trimers designed as SERS-active chemical traps for subtyping of lung tumors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    18. Bohan Li & Qingyu Fu & Yan Lu & Cheng Chen & Yingshuai Zhao & Yuanfeng Zhao & Minghui Cao & Wei Zhou & Xiaoliang Fan & Xiaoyu Jiang & Peng Zhao & Yijun Zheng, 2025. "3D hydrogel platform with macromolecular actuators for precisely controlled mechanical forces on cancer cell migration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-15, December.
    19. Andreas Mischok & Bernhard Siegmund & Florian Le Roux & Sabina Hillebrandt & Koen Vandewal & Malte C. Gather, 2024. "Breaking the angular dispersion limit in thin film optics by ultra-strong light-matter coupling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    20. Yicheng Zhu & Jiankun Hou & Qi Geng & Boyi Xue & Yuping Chen & Xianfeng Chen & Li Ge & Wenjie Wan, 2024. "Storing light near an exceptional point," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-7, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59607-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.