Introduction / mission

We investigate the interaction of light with matter at the nanometer scale. We develop new and improved ways of making visible light interact deep subwavelength objects such as atomically thin semiconductors and molecules.

Organisational profile

Nanophotonics with Layered Semiconductor

Electrons in two-dimensional layered semiconductors like MoS2 possess additional degrees of freedom compared to conventional semiconductors. Apart from charge and spin, they can be assigned valley (direction) and layer indexes. The opens up many opportunities for the observation of novel physical phenomena and constitutes a new resource for the design of optoelectronic devices for information processing.

The interplay between spin, valley and layer numbers in few-layer van der Waals semiconductors gives rise to very rich exciton Physics. Our team investigates the optical properties of these fascinating materials through a combination of low-temperature photoluminescence, optical polarization, magneto-photoluminescence, and photocurrent techniques.

Chiral Nano-Optics

An overarching goal of our research is a better understanding and exploitation of optical chirality at the nanoscale: its physical origin, its enhancement and manipulation, and possible chiral nanophotonic devices. A major focus of our research is thus the demonstration of novel nano-optical effects governed by specific spin and valley Physics.