Professor Andrea Caviglia awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant
Andrea Caviglia, full professor at the Department of Quantum Matter physics, UNIGE, has been recognized for the excellence of his work with an ERC Consolidator Grant providing 2 million euros over five years for the QED Materials project – Quantum Electrodynamics of materials.
Light plays a fundamental role in the investigation of materials with novel electronic properties. Probing materials with light reveals the presence of organised collective behaviour rooted in the quantum nature of matter. Even more importantly, in recent times we have come to the realization that light can also unlock new properties of materials. This project will take the next step in the field of light control of quantum materials by enhancing light-matter interactions using electromagnetic cavities tuned in proximity to optical phonon resonances of quantum materials. This new approach will enable strong light-matter interactions and the synthesis of quantum states of light and matter where photons can become part of the ground state of materials.
Andrea Caviglia leads the Laboratory for Designer Quantum Materials. His research is devoted to the understanding and control of fundamental new properties of matter arising from quantum principles. His laboratory combines atomic scale synthesis of quantum materials with advanced light sources to engineer material properties in and out of equilibrium. He received the 2016 Nicholas Kurti Science Prize and was awarded the ERC Starting and Proof of Concept grants.
The ERC Consolidator grant is given to researchers with 7-12 years of experience since the completion of PhD, a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal.
Contact: Andrea Caviglia