News
March 14, 2024
Impact of Transforming Interface Geometry on Edge States in Valley Photonic Crystals
D. Yu, S. Arora, and L. Kuipers Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 116901 (2024). We investigate how altering the interface geometry from a zigzag to a glide plane interface between two topologically distinct valley Hall emulating photonic crystals (VPC), profoundly affects edge states. We experimentally observe a transition from gapless to gapped edge states, accompanied by the occurrence of slow light within the Brillouin zone, rather than at its edge. We numerically simulate the propagation and measure the transmittance of the modified edge states through a specially designed valley-conserving defect. The robustness to backscattering gradually decreases, suggesting a disruption of valley-dependent transport. We demonstrate the significance of interface geometry to gapless edge states in a VPC. 
November 27, 2023
Discussing cutting-edge progress in nanophotonics at NANOP 2023
How can we localize light at a waveguide termination of a photonic crystal? This question was answered by our colleague Daniel in his talk at the recent NANOP conference in Barcelona. 
November 13, 2023
Successful defense Sonakshi Arora
On Monday 13th of November, Sonakshi Arora successfully defended her PhD thesis titled “Photonic Topological Edge States: A nanoscale investigation”. We congratulate dr. Arora with this beautiful achievement. Your insightful input in the group will be genuinely missed. Good luck with your future endeavours! 
September 1, 2023
New PhD student: Onima Bisht
Onima Bisht has recently joined the Kuipers Lab. She has completed both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Physics from Delhi University, India after which she pursued another masters, specializing in Applied Optics from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. In her first project she studied the temperature dependent structural properties of metal-oxide nanoparticles. During her master’s studies, she fabricated plasmonic nanoparticle arrays, characterized their optical properties using Raman spectroscopy for biosensing applications. At the Kuipers Lab, her research focuses on 2D materials and studying their optical properties, with a keen enthusiasm to expand her knowledge and creative insights in this field. She eagerly anticipates collaborating with colleagues at the Department of Quantum Nanoscience, and contributing to research in Nano-optics.
April 26, 2023
Successful defense Marc Noordam
On Wednesday 26th of April, after four years in the group, Marc Noordam successfully defended his PhD thesis titled “Interacting light fields in monolayer WS2 and plasmonic systems”. Congratulations dr. Noordam, we wish you all the best, and we have no doubt you will do great wherever you decide to go next!
March 31, 2023
Sonakshi Arora wins best poster prize at PECS-XIII
At PECS-XIII, The 13th International Symposium on Photonic and Electromagnetic Crystal Structures held in Tokyo, Japan , the Best Poster Award was presented to Sonakshi Arora. The topic of the poster was titled “Direct quantification of robustness in topologically trivial and non-trivial photonic edge states in telecom wavelengths”. Congratulations Sonakshi on winning the award! 
December 14, 2022
Thijs van Gogh wins best presentation prize at NFO 2022
At the Near-Field Optics conference, which was held in Victoria, Canada early September 2022, Thijs van Gogh was awarded a prize for the best oral presentation. In his talk titled “Diffusion of optical phase singularities” he discussed his recent experimental work on the diffusive behaviour of phase singularities in random wave fields, through the use of a near-field microscope. Congratulations Thijs on winning this prize! 
September 13, 2022
New PhD student: Daniël Muis
My name is Daniël and I recently started my PhD at the Kuipers Lab. I completed both my Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at the Radboud University of Nijmegen. During my master project I worked at the group of Ultrafast Spectroscopy of Correlated Matter (USCM) where I studied the dynamic non-collinear magnetization states in a Gd/FeCo multilayer. In the next four years I hope to expand my knowledge in the field of nano-optics and to broaden my academic skills. Specifically I will focus on topological protected edge states in an artificial photonic crystal. I look forward to work with my new colleagues and all the other members of the department of Quantum Nanoscience. 
April 14, 2022
New master student: Corné Wiggers
I am Corné and I am doing my master project in Kuipers Lab under supervision of Thijs. I did my bachelor in theoretical physics in Utrecht and after that I enrolled myself for the master program Applied Physics at the TU-Delft. During the master project I will investigate the electromagnetic fields in chiral photonic crystal waveguides. These waveguides differ from regular photonic crystal waveguides by their broken symmetries. The research goal is to optimize the chiral fields around the slab using simulations. After this the waveguides are fabricated and measured using a near-field microscope. 
April 7, 2022
New master student: Margriet van Riggelen
Hi! My name is Margriet and I am doing a short master project in Kuipers Lab. Before, I worked on the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond as a platform for quantum computing in Taminiau Lab. For the next six weeks I will measure on valley-Hall photonic crystals under the supervision of Sonakshi. We will investigate the relation between the pseudospin of topological states and the polarization of their far field radiation. I am really excited to work with the intricate near-field microscope to do some interesting experimental physics. In my free time, I love cooking for groups of people and walking in nature. 
April 7, 2022
New master student: Di Yu
Di Yu got his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics in China. During his bachelor, Di worked on quantum optics and hybrid quantum systems. He will be doing his master thesis project investigating topological edge states at nanoscale with near-field optics. 
October 8, 2021
Radiationless anapole states in on-chip photonics
E. Díaz-Escobar, T. Bauer, E. Pinilla-Cienfuegos, A. I. Barreda, A. Griol, L. Kuipers and A. Martínez, Light: Science & Applications, 10, 204 (2021). Enhanced on-chip photonic sensing and routing is playing an increasingly significant role in modern society. Realized as interference between different modes in high-index nanoparticles, radiationless states called anapoles are here one promising concept that combines reduced scattering with enhanced concentration of energy. Together with researchers from the Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany, we now showed that when driven via integrated waveguides, these two striking properties decouple spectrally. The findings provide a crucial step towards the use of anapole states in photonic integrated circuitry. 
Decoupling of anapole condition and near-field energy maximum in on-chip excitation of high-index nanodisks, with an experimental visualisation of the double-vortex structure of the contributing toroidal moment. For an in-depth discussion of the results, feel free to read this pdf
January 26, 2021
Quantifying topological protection in on-chip photonics
S. Arora, T. Bauer, R. Barczyk, E. Verhagen and L. Kuipers Light: Science & Applications, 10, 9 (2021). Photonic topological insulators are currently at the forefront of on-chip photonic research due to their potential for loss-free information transport. Realized in photonic crystals, they enable robust propagation of optical states along domain walls. But how robust is robust? In order to answer this, together with a group of researchers from AMOLF we quantified photonic edge state transport using phase-resolved near-field optical microscopy. The findings provide a crucial step towards error-free integrated photonic quantum networks.For a more in depth explanation of the paper, feel free to read this pdf! 
January 15, 2020
Photothermal microscopy meets circular dichroism
An article presenting our latest publication “Circular Dichroism Measurement of Single Metal Nanoparticles Using Photothermal Imaging” was published at the TU Delft website and also at the Leiden University website. We are proud of our collaborative work and we love to share it with the community. In the paper, we show that we can measure the chirality of nano-objects, for example, gold nanostructures, with a ten-times improved sensitivity. This is now possible through the combination of two techniques, a challenging task we manage in collaboration with people from the single-molecule optics group at Leiden university.
October 16, 2019
Irina Komen wins poster prize at AMO Lunteren 2019
Irina Komen was awarded the poster prize at the conference of the Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (NNV AMO), held this October in Lunteren, the Netherlands. She presented her work towards measuring exciton-polaritons in 2D WS2 using a near-field microscope. Runner-up for the prize was Thijs van Gogh presenting his work on flow-field singularities in random waves. Congratulations Irina on winning the prize, and an overall good effort from the group!
July 11, 2019
Successful defense Nikhil Parappurath
On wednesday July 3rd 2019, Nikhil Parappurath has defended his PhD thesis Chiral Flow of Light in Photonic Crystals with Broken Symmetries with succes. Dr. Parappurath, congratulations with your promotion and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
January 17, 2019
New group member Sonakshi Arora
Sonakshi Arora recently joined the Kuipers Lab for her PhD at TU Delft. She completed her Master’s degree at Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany. During her master project she worked on the excitonic properties of two-dimensional semiconductors to probe out-of-plane defect-bound states at low temperatures. For her PhD, she has chosen to delve into the field of nano-optics and hopes to strengthen her experimental skills to create new interesting materials to manipulate light with. She is excited to work on topological photonic crystals using near-field microscopy and possibly mix them up with 2D materials.
January 17, 2019
Kobus Kuipers wins Physica prize 2019
Kobus Kuipers has been awarded the Physica prize 2019. With this prize, he is being recognized for both his outstanding and innovative research, being one of the pioneers of nanophotonics in the Netherlands, as well as his outreach efforts to bring physics to the general public. He will receive the award at the FYSICA 2019 congress on friday the 5th of April at Amsterdam Sciencepark, where he will then also give the accompanying Physica lecture. Congratulations Kobus!
January 16, 2019
Succesful defense Lorenzo De Angelis
On December 20th 2018, Lorenzo De Angelis has defended his PhD thesis The Singular Optics of Random Light with success. Congratulations with your promotion Dr. De Angelis, and good luck with your post-doc on neuroscience in Amsterdam!
January 16, 2019
New group member Marc Noordam
We are happy to announce that Marc Noordam recently joined the Kuipers Lab and will be working on a new laser setup to perform far field measurements on 2D nanostructures. Marc graduated this summer from the master Applied Physics at the TU Delft. He performed his master thesis at Qutech about the readout of electron spin states confined in a 2DEG. Now he is looking forward to start discovering the field of NanoOptics.