Shedding nano-light on quantum materials

Dmitri N. Basov, Ph.D.

Higgins Professor and Chair, Department of Physics, Columbia University

Abstract:  I will present our recent work on nano-spectroscopy and nano-imaging of van der Waals (vdW) materials and interfaces. I am particularly excited with two recent results: 1) Good plasmons in a bad metal: MoOCl₂ is the latest addition to hyperbolic vdW materials with non-trivial electrodynamics spanning a broad range of frequencies from mid-IR to visible / Frank Ruta et al. Science 387, 786 (2025); 2) vdW waveguide quantum electrodynamics: we observed notable Purcell enhancement of the spontaneous emission produced by MoTe₂ monolayers integrated in WSe₂ waveguides /Sam Moore et al. Nature Photonics 2025/.

Bio:  Dmitri N. Basov (PhD 1991) is a Higgins professor and Chair of the Department of Physics at Columbia University [http://infrared.cni.columbia.edu], the Director of the DOE Energy Frontiers Research Center on Programmable Quantum Materials [since 2018] and co-director of Max Planck Society – New York Center for Nonequilibrium Quantum Phenomena [2018-2030]. He has served as a professor (1997-2016) and Chair (2010-2015) of Physics, University of California San Diego. Research interests include: physics of quantum materials, superconductivity, two-dimensional materials, infrared nano-optics. Prizes and recognitions: Sloan Fellowship (1999), Genzel Prize (2014), Humboldt research award (2009), Frank Isakson Prize, American Physical Society (2012), Moore Investigator (2014, 2020), K.J. Button Prize (2019), Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (U.S. Department of Defense, 2019), National Academy of Sciences (2020).