Tobia Nova

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Quantum materials are solids in which quantum effects persist across broad temperature and length scales, giving rise to interacting networks of electronic, structural, and magnetic degrees of freedom. This complex choreography produces rich energy landscapes where quantum phases compete, coexist, and intertwine.
The ability to rationally design and manipulate these emergent phenomena is a modern frontier of condensed matter physics, promising both fundamental discoveries and transformative technologies. My research addresses this challenge by exploring light as a versatile tuning knob, spanning from classical light fields to quantum vacuum fluctuations.
In the classical regime, I show how intense, ultrafast terahertz (THz) pulses, matched to the energy scales of collective modes, can selectively drive lattice vibrations and steer materials across phase boundaries—enhancing, stabilizing, and even inducing phases inaccessible at equilibrium.
But what if we could transcend external driving altogether? What if the quantum vacuum itself, teeming with electromagnetic field fluctuations, could become a permanent control parameter?
In the quantum regime, I investigate this possibility by embedding materials in cavities smaller than the wavelength of light. By dramatically enhancing their coupling to vacuum fields, we create hybrid light–matter states that can reshape material properties. Here, the boundary between light and matter dissolves, opening pathways to designer quantum phases.
This talk will traverse both frontiers, establishing light as a universal tool for sculpting quantum matter, with a particular focus on my experimental platform for THz spectroscopy and control of two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures.

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University of Geneva
PH2
Contact: Erwann Bocquillon / Matteo Cacco