Vasilis Rokaj

ITAMP Postdoctoral Fellow

Bio

Vasilis studied physics as an undergraduate student at the University of Athens and obtained his B.Sc. degree in 2014. Then, he moved to Hamburg to study mathematical physics, and obtained his M.Sc. on mathematical physics from the University of Hamburg in 2016. He joined then the theory department at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg (Germany) to work under the supervision of Prof. Angel Rubio on ''Condensed Matter Systems in Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics'' and obtained his Ph.D. (summa cum laude) in 2021. In his Ph.D., Vasilis focused mainly on 2D electron gases and quantum Hall systems under strong coupling to cavities, and showed that the quantum cavity-field can modify the conduction properties of such macroscopic condensed matter systems. During his Ph.D. he also worked on the stability and fundamentals of quantum electrodynamics (QED) as well. Since October 2021 he is an ITAMP postodoctoral fellow working on many-body systems in cavity QED.

Research Interests

  • Cavity QED
  • Condensed matter systems
  • Polariton quasi-particles
  • Quantum Hall effects
  • Materials in magnetic fields and Hofstadter butterfly
  • Fundamentals of QED
    • Publications
    My google scholar account
    A talk of mine on ''The Quest for an LDA Functional in Quantum Electrodynamics''
    Coverage of my work by Phys.Org
    My Ph.D. thesis published by the University of Hamburg
    My talk on ''Controlling Quantum Matter with Quantum Cavity Fields''

    Polaritonic Hofstadter Butterfly and Cavity-Control of the Quantized Hall Conductance. [Phys. Rev. B 105, 205424 (2022)] (Open Access)

    Cavity-Induced Many-Body Polaritons.
    [arXiv:2207.03436 (2022)]

    Free Electron Gas in Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics.
    [Phys. Rev. Research 4, 013012 (2022)] (Open Access)

    Quantum Electrodynamical Bloch Theory with Homogeneous Magnetic Fields.
    [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 047202 (2019)] (Editors' Suggestion)

    Landau Levels and Hall Phases in a 2D Electron Gas Subject to an Inhomogeneous Magnetic Field.
    [arXiv:2201.05069 (2022)]

    Contact
    Office: 
    B322

    vasil.rokaj@cfa.harvard.edu