Quantum electrodynamics (QED)
Materials manipulation through nanocavities
What are hybrid light-matter states?
Light-matter interactions refer to how electromagnetic waves (like light) influence and are influenced by charged particles, typically electrons in atoms or molecules. When this interaction is "strong", the system cannot simply be described as a mere sum of its light and matter components. Instead, light and matter become intricately correlated, giving rise to new hybrid states of light and matter. Such states can be dominated by quantum effects, which in turn dictate the behavior of the materials.
Through the new project 2D-QED, Koppens aims to manipulate materials in a completely different way, by making them interact with light at the nanoscale, confined within optical nanocavities. His goal is to miniaturize the size of the optical cavities, employing them for the first time to alter the properties of such hybrid materials
Links of interest:
- Award Announcement: The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awards ICFO's research on hybrid states of matter
- Publication in Science: "Far-field excitation of single graphene plasmon cavities with ultracompressed mode volumes"
- Publication in Nature Materials: "High-quality nanocavities through multimodal confinement of hyperbolic polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride"
Funding:
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation