Group leader:

Prof Dr Clivia M Sotomayor Torres

Scientist in charge of the fellow:

Prof Dr Clivia M Sotomayor Torres

Contact email:

Clivia.sotomayor@icn2.cat

Brief description of the research group:

The Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) is a research centre with about 200 people among researchers, technical and administrative support staff. The research covers topics in information and communication technologies, health and life sciences and energy, as well as the development of methods for nanofabrication, growth, nano-and microscale characterisation and analysis for nanoelectronics, spintronics, nanophotonics and nanophononics.

The Photonic and Phononic Nanostructures (P2N) group (https://www.icn2-p2n.eu/) is led by Prof. Clivia Sotomayor Torres. The P2N research topics include studies based on phonon and photon confinement, opto-mechanics, nanoscale heat transport and phononic and photonic crystals in semiconductors, 2D materials, organic and oxide nanostructures. The group carries out pioneering in nanophononics, nanofabrication and nanometrology.

The P2N group develops new concepts for multi-state variables based on the engineered interactions of phonons with electrons and photons, in device-like structures. One particular interest is thermal transport in the nanoscale to address heat dissipation in nanoelectronics, the role of phonons in noise and dissipation in nano-scale systems. Our experimental research is anchored in novel nanofabrication methods and defectivity metrology. In our research we use state of the art optical spectroscopy methods and develop new techniques to reach the nanoscale in thermal transport, such as laser Raman thermometry and time/frequency domain thermoreflectance.

Title of project:

Topological phononic waveguides: a spectroscopic study

Project description:

Topological matter is an increasingly active solid-state physics research field. This project deals with an experimental study of topological phonons to be studied in a platform containing 2D (topological) phononic waveguides. These will be designed in collaboration with Lille University and fabricated in collaboration with the Finish VTT and the French CEA, as part of a research strategy of the group, which also studies topological photons. For the phononics part, it is envisaged that phonon launching and detecting schemes will be realised to act as input and output, respectively. A first challenge is to assess the non-trivial topological character of the waveguide based on the physics concepts of the design considerations and the constraints of nanofabrication. The project will focus on the inelastic scattering study of the waveguides complemented by imaging methods.

Ideally the applicant should have a strong solid-state nanophotonics and instrumentation background and a keen interest to explore cutting-edge ideas in the challenging field of topological bosons.

This work is supported by the Spanish MICINN project SIP, the EU H2020 TOCHA and the ERC Advanced Grant LEIT.

Research area:

Information Science and Engineering

ENG

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Physics

PHY

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As standard ICN2 HR will request a letter of motivation, CV (max. 4 pages) and two referees.