11/10/2025
By Amanda Vozzo
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025
Time: 4 – 5 p.m.
Location: Olsen 503
Vinod M. Menon, Professor of Physics & Chair - Photonics Track, City College of New York, will give a talk on “Exciton-polaritons: From manipulating quantum materials to out-of-equilibrium condensates”
Abstract: Strong exciton-photon interaction results in the formation of half-light half-matter quasiparticles called exciton-polaritons (EPs) that take on the properties of both its constituents. In this talk I will first introduce the concept of exciton polariton formation in low-dimensional semiconductors. Following this, I will discuss our recent work on realizing magneto-EPs in van der Waals magnet - CrSBr and the possibility of controlling the magneto-optic response by tuning the light or matter fraction of the polariton states. In addition to tuning the magneto-optic response, we will also show evidence of coupling between coherent magnons and polaritons through time resolved measurements where the fingerprint of GHz magnon oscillations is observed on the polariton states. I will also present our recent work on the role of magnons on nonlinear exciton-exciton interaction in CrSBr as well as the demonstration of highly confined EPs. In the second part of the talk, I will discuss the formation of out-of-equilibrium condensates at room temperature using polaritons formed using excitons in organic molecules. Approaches to create condensate lattices in such systems and their potential application as Hamiltonian simulators will be briefly discussed.
Bio: Vinod Menon is a Professor of Physics at the City University of New York (CUNY) – Queens College and Graduate Center. He joined CUNY as part of the Photonic Initiative in 2004. Prior to joining CUNY he was a research staff member at Princeton University (2003-04). He joined Princeton as the Lucent Bell Labs Post Doctoral Fellow in Photonics in 2001. He received his MSc in Physics from the University of Hyderabad, India in 1995 and his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Massachusetts in 2001. His current research interests include the development of classical and non-classical light sources using quantum dots, metamaterials for controlling light-matter interaction, and engineered nonlinear optical materials using hybrid nanocomposites. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a Fellow of the Optical Society of America.