In brief:

I am theoretical physicist working at Aalto University on topological effects in bosonic systems, such as ultracold atoms, photonics and plasmonic setups.

I hold an Academy Research Fellowship (project RETINA) funded by the Research Council of Finland, see related news here.

I was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Individual Fellow (project TEBLA) in the Quantum Dynamics group of Prof. Päivi Törmä at Aalto University, Finland, see related news here.

Previously, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Dr. Nathan Goldman at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. Before that, I was a Ph.D student and a postdoctoral researcher at the INO-CNR BEC Center in Trento, Italy, in the group of Dr. Iacopo Carusotto.

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More about my research:

Advances in quantum simulators have shown that synthetic systems are a powerful platform in which to study a whole variety of condensed matter Hamiltonians, with the ability to explore properties over a wide-range of parameters. Motivated and inspired by this progress, which holds the promise for applications in quantum technologies, I explore novel phenomena in quantum gases on a theoretical level with analytical and numerical techniques.

Topological phases of matter is a concept that developed in condensed matter physics and nowadays attracts a great interest from a fundamental physics perspective. Topology was used to explain the behaviour of electrons in the quantum Hall effect, and it has become a very powerful paradigm for realising and understanding novel phenomena beyond the quantum Hall effect (e.g. topological insulators, non-abelian anyons) in solid-state materials and also in synthetic matter, such as cold atoms, photonics, mechanical systems, exciton-polaritons, plasmonic-polaritons, photonic modes and beyond.

My present research interests as a theorist focus on the design and simulation of topological phases in synthetic quantum matter, with particular attention to proposals for experimental realisations. My work strongly benefits from an interdisciplinary approach, by combining theoretical advances and methods from diverse platforms such as ultracold gases, photonics, and solid state physics, and from collaboration with experimental groups, bridging together diverse fields and expertise. My research aims to develop ways to use topology for controlling photons or atoms; although the properties of many topological phases are well captured within a single-particle description, interactions areexpected to significantly enrich the physical phenomena. In the long-term, understanding the topological properties of interacting bosons in lattices, towards the exploration of strongly correlated topological fluids of light may contribute to the development of quantum technologies, which require the precise control of quantum systems for information processing or all-optical fast communication.

My present topics of research are about:

  • Topological properties of lattice models
    • Topological insulators
    • Plasmonics and nanophotonics
    • Bound states in the continuum and polarization vortices
  • Out-of-equilibrium phenomena
    • Driven-dissipative systems
    • Floquet engineering
    • Lasing, loss-induced effects and light radiation