New Journal of Physics

Strong interaction between emitters and plasmonic nanocavity has various applications in quantum fields at room temperature. As Rabi oscillation gives the direct proof to the energy exchange in strong coupling, it is more intuitive and necessary to analyze the interaction in time domain. In this paper, we give the Rabi oscillation in a high-dissipation plasmonic nanocavity by using full-quantum method and draw a new strong coupling criterion about mode volume which provides a significant guidance in plasmonic nanocavitys nanofabrication. Moreover, we reveal the relation between Rabi oscillation and Rabi splitting, which is beneficial for exploring emitter–plasmon hybrid systems time-domain property through frequency-domain response. An emitter–hexagon hybrid system with ultrasmall mode volume is designed to verify our theory. The numerical simulation shows good agreements with our theoretical results. Our work has applications in quantum information and quantum computing in the future.