Fig. 2: Pictorial representation of the normal mode decomposition for an optical cavity with frequency ωc coupled to a molecular vibration with frequency ωv.
The cavity and vibration harmonic oscillators are depicted as springs. The cavity, with position coordinate qc, and vibration, with position coordinate Q, are coupled by \(2g\sqrt{{\omega }_{c}{\omega }_{v}}/\hslash\) where g is the Jaynes–Cummings coupling constant and ℏ is Planck’s reduced constant. The cavity and vibrational coordinates are then rotated into a coordinate system of two uncoupled oscillators called the polariton basis, with coordinates R− and R+, and with displaced minima proportional to the excited-state nuclear equilibrium configuration \({Q}_{0}^{(e)}\).
