(July 2024) Left to right: Robin Eriksson (project assistant), Marzo López Cerón (project assistant), Matheus Ferreira (PhD student), Dmitry Baranov (PI), Lorenzo Tallarini (PhD student), Yong Li (postdoc), Baptiste Gastin (Erasmus+). Not pictured: Chenxu Jiao (M.Sc.)

(December 2024) Left to right: Lorenzo Tallarini (PhD student), Dmitry Baranov (PI), Matheus Ferreira (PhD student), Yong Li (postdoc), Stefano Toso (postdoc), Prasenjit Mandal (postdoc). Not pictured: Chenxu Jiao (M.Sc.)

Colloidal nanocrystals are solution-processed materials at the intersection of atoms, molecules, and bulk crystals. When put together into artificial solids, also known as assemblies or superlattices, nanocrystals interact and display cooperative behavior, resulting in novel functionalities. Within this research direction, we are working to produce desired nanocrystals and control their self-assembly to enable these exciting opportunities.

Team: Matheus Ferreira (11/2023-), Baptiste Gastin (Summer 2024), Dr. Stefano Toso (09/2024-), Dr. Prasenjit Mandal (11/2024-)

Optical spectroscopy and x-ray scattering are tools which enable understanding of what is going on with and in the nanocrystals, and give an idea what these materials are useful for. Within this research direction we apply and develop methods for advanced spectroscopic and structural studies of the nanomaterials and light-matter interactions. Naturally, it is a collaborative enterprise where we are fortunate to have opportunity to interact with the unique spectroscopy infrastructure at the Division of Chemical Physics and Lund University.

Team: Lorenzo Tallarini (09/2023-), Marzo López Cerón (Summer 2024), Robin Eriksson (Spring-Summer 2024), Dr. Stefano Toso (09/2024-), Dr. Prasenjit Mandal (11/2024-), Gioele Lapo (02/2025-)

Synchronization of metronomes (video 1), fireflies (video 2), people (video 3) are some of the fascinating examples of collective phenomena rooted in energy release and feedback. Engineering such effects in artificial materials is challenging yet attractive because it tests exisiting paragidms of materials design and promises potentially novel functionalities. Within this research direction, we are working to get a better insight into phenomena of superradiance and superfluorescence of luminescent materials.

Team: Everyone

Inorganic and hybrid metal halides hold a special place in the landscape of light-emitting materials because of their diverse photophysics and structure-property tunability, resulting in bright photoluminescence phenomena. Within this research direction, we aim to explore and adapt novel metal halides for optoelectronic applications and basic insights into light-matter interaction.

Team: Dr. Yong Li (09/2023-), Chenxu Jiao (09/2024-)

The group is located at the Division of Chemical Physics renown for its steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy and optical microscopy infrastructure. Specific to the NAS group are CRYO-LUMOS (cryo-optical setup for luminescent nanomaterials, supported by the ERC Starting Grant) and air-free gloveboxes for nanochemistry (pictured above, supported by the Crafoord Foundation). Kemicentrum enables access to the nCHREM facility for electron microscopy and X-ray laboratory in CAS for diffraction. Nanofabrication and additional materials characterization tools are available through NanoLund.

Master projects are available in the group along the three topics listed below. The projects can be shaped to go largely along the group's research lines as described above, or be forward-looking and exploring a new territory, depending on the skillset, motivation, and interest of the student seeking to make impact.  If you are interested in any (or all) of these directions, reach out to dmitry.baranov@chemphys.lu.se for discussion.

• Spontaneous Synchronization for Cooperative Light Emission. The project’s focus is to investigate how two-level systems synchronize light emission spontaneously at the nanoscale. The project has both theoretical and experimental dimensions: modeling of cooperative interactions (e.g., dipole-dipole, field-dipole coupling) with relevance to adjacent phenomena of amplified spontaneous emission and lasing; experimental studies of nanocrystal assemblies exhibiting collective emission, as well as macroscopic LED prototypes.

• Chirality Transfer at the Nanoscale. The project’s focus is to develop chiral nano-emitters with high quantum yield and circular polarization in photoluminescence. This is mainly an experimental project involving the synthesis of chiral nano-luminophores, their self-assembly on metasurface patterns, and characterization with circular dichroism, circular photoluminescence, as well as femtosecond transient absorption with polarization control.

• Machine Learning for Discovery. The project’s focus is to study and apply computational approaches to parse unstructured scientific data, identify knowledge gaps, and discover interdisciplinary opportunities in material science and chemical physics. The project combines machine learning, natural language processing, and large language models to analyze complex research literature to discern patterns and accelerate innovation.