About the Workshop

The discovery of graphene and related family of layered materials like transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) which can exist as two dimensional layers with weak (van der Waals) inter-layer coupling has revolutionized condensed matter physics research in the last decade. Current research focuses on discovery of new states by fabricating novel heterostructures with these materials, having controlled structure and orientation, and utilizing various degrees of freedom including charge, spin, valley or topology.

Formation of new states is quite often triggered by interactions of these materials with light having controlled polarization, amplitude and phases. The emergence of artificial photonic media such as “metamaterials” and “photonic crystals” offer a new-found freedom to engineer the electromagnetic environment and coupling of material excitations to such artificial media now presents a unique opportunity to coherently manipulate matter with light. Examples include the control of the valley degree of freedom in 2D TMDs via hyperbolic metamaterials and metasurfaces, and the realization of strongly coupled half-light half-matter quasiparticles using optical cavities and plasmonic crystals. Another research area that has recently garnered much attention in photonics is the emulation of topological phenomena seen in condensed matter systems using photonic systems. Strong coupling of such topological photonic structures with low-dimensional materials will allow to explore emergent topological phases which are hard to realize in condensed matter systems. In addition to classical systems, 2D materials have also emerged as an attractive platform for realizing quantum optical processes and building blocks for quantum technologies.

 The aim of the workshop is to bring together the leading experts in the field of light-matter interaction using artificial photonic media and novel phenomena in emerging low-dimensional materials. Through this workshop we anticipate to bring greater awareness amongst Indian researchers and develop possibilities for collaborations in this rapidly emerging area of research.

This workshop is being organized as part of the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaborations (SPARC) (https://sparc.iitkgp.ac.in/) program sponsored by the MHRD of India and the Indian Institute of Science (https://www.iisc.ac.in/), Bangalore, India. under the Institute of Eminence (IOE) high impact international research workshop scheme.  Indian Institute of Science is one of the oldest and currently the top ranked institute of research and university in India, started back in 1909.