Speaker: Francisco J. Garcia-Vidal
Time: 14:00-16:00 Wednesday,May 13th, 2026
Venue: Information Building 1134, Jiulonghu Campus
Affiliation: Departamento de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada and Condensed Matter Physics Center (IFIMAC), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Abstract
Periodic structures are central to both condensed matter physics and photonics: crystals shape the motion of electrons, while metasurfaces shape the propagation of light. I will discuss what happens when these two forms of periodicity are brought into close quantum contact, by coupling periodic arrays of quantum emitters to the confined modes of optical metasurfaces. This gives rise to a new class of hybrid excitations that we call crystal polaritons. First, I will introduce a general framework, based on macroscopic quantum electrodynamics, for quantizing the resonant modes of metasurfaces and describing their strong coupling to collective emitter excitations. I will then show how bound states in the continuum or surface lattice resonances can enable strong coupling even with one emitter per unit cell. Finally, I will explore the nonlinear quantum optical response of these systems, including the possibility of efficient, directional generation of entangled photon pairs at extremely low excitation densities.
Francisco J. Garcia-Vidal is a scientific group leader and full professor at the Physics department of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) in Spain. Prof. Garcia-Vidal and his group have worked in different areas within Plasmonics and Metamaterials such as surface enhanced Raman scattering, the phenomenon of extraordinary transmission of light and other waves through subwavelength apertures, the development of the concept of spoof surface plasmons and, more recently, Quantum Nanophotonics. Prof. Garcia-Vidal has authored around 300 refereed journal articles, which have received more than 50,000 citations (H-index: 107), and he has been included seven times in the list of Highly Cited Researchers in the field of Physics. He is also the founding director of the Condensed Matter Physics Center (IFIMAC) at UAM, and he was also the recipient of an ERC Advanced Grant devoted to analysing quantum effects in Plasmonics. Prof. Garcia-Vidal is also a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and served as a Divisional Associate Editor of Physical Review Letters for four years. He was the recipient of the King Jaume I prize for Basic Research in year 2020, he was awarded with the National prize of Physics in Spain in year 2021 and, more recently, he received the medal of the Royal Spanish Society of Physics in year 2025.
