Konstantinos Lagoudakis: Light-Matter Interactions in Semiconductors: An Endless Playground for Fundamental Physics and Applications

Monday, March 9, 2015 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Konstantinos Lagoudakis,  Stanford University

Light matter interactions lie in the heart of several phenomena of fundamental and applied interest. Both condensation of exciton polaritons in semiconductor microcavities as well as quantum information processing with charged quantum dots in micro-resonators rely on strong light matter interactions. In this talk, I will present some of my most striking experimental findings in both of these fields: from vorticity and Josephson oscillations in polaritonic quantum fluids to pumping and coherent control of individual spins in self-assembled and site-controlled quantum dots. Although polariton condensates and related phenomena originate from the collective character of the particles involved making them diametrically different from the singular character of the physics of quantum dots, merging these two fields has a great potential for the creation of novel scalable quantum technologies.