Light and matter: Photonics scientist to occupy the cluster's first junior professorship

Overview

Dr. Sebastian Klembt from the Chair of Applied Physics of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) is the new Junior Professor for Light-Matter Interaction and Topological Photonics. At the same time, the physicist leads the first Junior Research Group of the Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat – Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter.
 
Prof. Klembt investigates the coupling of light and matter in 2D materials as well as in electronic and photonic semiconductor nanostructures. The scientist thus plays a key role in the “Topological Photonics” research area of ​​the Cluster of Excellence. While digital information is commonly transmitted by sluggishly flowing electrons in semiconductors, a current research approach is devoted to the possibility of using photons, i.e., light, for this. In this special case, however, photons and electrons have to be coupled. This promises a number of new and exciting features and functionalities.
 
In 2018, Dr. Sebastian Klembt was a leading researcher of an exciting publication on the coupling of light and matter, published in the renowned journal Nature. For the first time, a “topological insulator made of light and matter” – a new type of quantum material – was presented, at the edges of which particles move where light and matter (photons and electrons) are closely linked. A special feature ist that the direction of transport of these particles can be controlled by means of a magnetic field, which is not easily possible with pure light particles. An innovation with double potential: It could be suitable for switchable electronic systems as well as for laser applications.
 
Klembt has been using this new type of topological isolator for his research since then – also within the framework of ct.qmat: “Since the first topological isolator made of light and matter, we have transferred the symbiotic connection of light and matter to many other physical systems. I am sure that we will discover unique properties and new quantum phenomena in the next few years,” predicts the researcher, who is currently working with his team on technological implementations of semiconductor-based topological lasers and optical sensors.