Bridging Nanoscale Quantum Optics to Basic Medical Research

by Vahid Sandoghdar (Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts, Erlangen)

Friday 4 Dec 2026, 15:15 → 17:00 Europe/Berlin

Nußallee 14-16/0.023 (HISKP) - Lecture Hall (HISKP)

Light-matter interaction at the nanometer scale lies at the heart of elementary optical processes such as absorption, emission or scattering. Over the past two decades, we have realized a series of cryogenic experiments to investigate the interaction of single photons, single molecules and single nanoparticles under controlled conditions. In this presentation, I will report on recent studies, where we reach unity efficiency in the coupling of single photons to single molecules in a microcavity and exploit this system for the realization of complex hybrid states involving a controlled number of molecules and photons. Furthermore, I will show how single molecules can serve as ultrasensitive local thermometers and as point-like sources of phonons and heat.

In the second part of the presentation, I will show how the underlying mechanisms that play a central role in quantum optics, help detect, image, characterize, and track single biological nanoparticles such as viruses and small proteins with high spatial and temporal resolutions and in a label-free fashion. I will argue that the theoretical and experimental toolbox of a quantum optician is ideally suited for branching out to the exciting field of medical research which confronts many important challenges.

Sandoghdar_04122026.pdf