The efficiency of light-matter strong coupling is tuned by precisely varying the spatial position of a thin layer of cyanine dye J-aggregates in Fabry-Perot microcavities, and their photophysical properties are determined. Placing the layer at the cavity field maximum affords an interaction energy (Rabi splitting) of 503 meV, a 62% increase over that observed if the aggregates are simply spread evenly through the cavity, placing the system in the ultrastrong coupling regime. The fluorescence quantum yield of the lowest polaritonic state P- integrated over k-space is found to be ∼10(-2). The same value can be deduced from the 1.4 ps lifetime of P- measured by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy and the calculated radiative decay rate constant. Thus, the polariton decay is dominated by nonradiative processes, in contrast with what might be expected from the small effective mass of the polaritons. These findings provide a deeper understanding of hybrid light-molecule states and have implications for the modification of molecular and material properties by strong coupling.
Keywords: microcavity; organic molecules; photophysics; spatial tuning; strong coupling.