An increasingly large number of van der Waals materials have been found to be direct-bandgap semiconductors that feature simultaneously strong optical responses, unusual material properties, and unprecedented flexibility to construct heterostructures and to integrate with diverse substrates. These features enable access to coherent light-matter interaction regimes that are challenging or even inaccessible in traditional materials. In this talk, we will discuss a few examples, including collective Lamb shift and perfect absorption in a monolayer, unconventional types of strong-coupling systems with unique properties, and a proposed system that utilizes some of these novel effects to enable a dynamic matter-light hybrid Chern insulator. These advances open new pathways to next generation photonic devices and quantum technologies.
Hui Deng is a Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research centers on creation, control, and application of single- and many-body quantum states in matter-light coupled systems, with an overarching goal to develop useful quantum systems for better technology. She received her BS in Modern Applied Physics from Tsinghua University, and her MS in Electrical Engineering and PhD in Applied Physics both from Stanford University. She received the NSF Career Awards, AFOSR Young Investigator Awards, and the Humboldt Foundation Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award. She is a fellow of APS and Optica.