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Our Research
Our lab focuses on topological and nanoscale engineering of chiral materials to manipulate light and heat at the atomic level. By designing asymmetrical photonic structures and thermally responsive architectures, we explore how chirality, spin–orbit interactions, and symmetry breaking govern optical and thermal phenomena. This work bridges quantum photonics, nonlinear optics, and thermal transport, enabling advanced control over electron, photon and phonon spin/orbital momentum, and correlated light and thermal emission. The insights gained pave the way for next-generation chiral quantum emitters, thermoradiative devices, and light-driven material systems.
1. Asymmetrical Nanocavities for Quantum Engineering
The advent of chiral materials has transformed the design of nanocavities with strong light-matter coupling, enabling continuous chirality across scales from atomic to microscopic. These advanced structures provide extensive material and design flexibility, optimizing the selectivity of photon quantum states, including spin and orbital angular momentum. Additionally, they enhance nonlinear optical responses and promote photon entanglement. This breakthrough paves the way for new frontiers in integrated nanophotonic, quantum photocatalysis and quantum imaging, particularly for complex biological tissues with intricate features.
2. Printing Atom with Asymmetry
Ultrafast printing provides a powerful and scalable route to indirectly engineer atomic and electronic asymmetry through precisely designed three-dimensional photonic scaffolds. In our laboratory, a benchtop ultrafast printing platform is built to fabricate chiral and inversion-broken micro- and nanostructures that generate asymmetric electromagnetic, thermal, and chemical environments for embedded or proximally coupled emitters. These engineered environments reshape local fields, atomic coordination, and optical transition selection rules, enabling continuous and deterministic chirality control over electronic states and photonic degrees of freedom, including spin and orbital angular momentum, of transmitted and radiated quantum particles and quasiparticles.
3. Topological Thermal Engineering
While significant progress has been made in the topological control of quantum states of photons, advancements in structured thermal engineering remain largely unexplored. Usually, thermal phenomena such as conduction, propagation, and transformation have been viewed as inherently random and disordered processes through the lens of classical thermodynamics. Introducing the concept of topological engineering provides a novel solution for understanding and manipulating these thermal effects.
4. Machine Learning Directed Optical & Material Designs
Machine learning is transforming chiral optical design by enabling the rapid optimization of complex photonic structures and advancing our understanding of light-matter interactions. By analyzing extensive datasets, it uncovers hidden patterns and guides the creation of highly efficient, application-specific optical components tailored for integrated optics. This approach significantly accelerates innovation across diverse optical fields, including imaging, communication, and quantum technologies.
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