Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
Ramón & Cajal Researcher, CSIC, 2015
At ICN2, I studied how mechanical vibrations in the GHz range interact with structural complexity and disorder in nanophotonic and optomechanical devices. This fundamental research has implications for a wide range of technologies, including energy harvesting, imaging, lasing, quantum optics, and information processing.
A central focus of my work was to understand how fabrication disorder affects light–matter interaction, and how it can be quantitatively harnessed rather than suppressed. In this context, I explored topological photonic phases by engineering the unit cell of periodic nanostructures. Here, band inversion driven purely by geometry is the key mechanism enabling bosonic analogues of topological insulators.
I co-supervised the PhD theses of Guillermo Arregui and Omar Florez, and coordinated the work of two theoretical postdoctoral researchers, Dr. Jordi Gomis-Bresco and Dr. Philippe Djorwe. During this period, I published ten papers (four as last author) in journals including Nature Communications and Physical Review Letters, and coordinated an EU-funded project as principal investigator.