Polaritonic Huang-Rhys Factor: Basic Concepts and Quantifying Light-Matter Interaction in Medium

Abstract: Huang-Rhys (HR) factor, a dimensionless factor that characterizes electron-phonon coupling, has been extensively employed to investigate material properties in various fields. In the same spirit, we present a quantity called polaritonic HR factor to quantitatively describe the effects of (i) light-matter coupling induced by permanent dipoles and (ii) dipole self-energy. The former can be viewed as polaritonic displacements, while the latter is associated with the electronic coupling shift. In the framework of macroscopic quantum electrodynamics, the polaritonic HR factor, coupling shift, and modified light-matter coupling strength in an arbitrary dielectric environment can be evaluated without free parameters, whose magnitudes are in good agreement with the previous experimental results. In addition, polaritonic progression developed in our theory indicates that large polaritonic HR factors can result in light-matter decoupling, multipolariton formation, and non-radiative transition. We believe that this study provides a useful perspective to understand and quantify light-matter interaction in medium.