A team of researchers led by Felipe Herrera, a professor at the University of Santiago and a researcher at the Millennium Institute for Research in Optics (MIRO), has identified a quantum phenomenon that enables chemical bonds to be broken using significantly less energy than is normally required.

The findings, published in Physical Review Letters under the title “Enhancing Infrared-Laser Dissociation of Molecules with the Electromagnetic Vacuum,” demonstrate that by using infrared light, the natural fluctuations present in the electromagnetic vacuum can promote molecular dissociation when molecules are confined within specially designed nanometer-scale structures known as nanocavities.

Although we often think of a vacuum as completely empty space, quantum physics shows that it is filled with tiny energy fluctuations. The researchers discovered that these fluctuations can be amplified inside a nanocavity, altering molecular vibrations and making it easier for an infrared laser to break chemical bonds.