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About us!

In our lab, we explore the properties of molecules and materials consisting of "light-matter hybrid states." We achieve the light-matter hybrid states by placing molecules/materials in Fabry-Perot cavities or substrates that can confine electromagnetic field. The half-light, half-matter character of the hybrid states can lead to interesting new molecule chemistry and physics. For instance, such quantum light-matter interaction can convert insulator polymers to good electrical conductors, suppress intermolecular interaction, etc. We combine molecular synthesis, nanofabrication, and spectroscopic techniques to understand the fundamentals of strongly coupled molecules to build next-generation devices based on quantum light-matter interactions.

News!

Best wishes to Vikram, who is joining Comenius University, Slovakia, for his PhD studies. He was a summer project student in our lab.

We welcome Malavika Sreekumar to our lab. She joined our lab as a PhD student after completing her Integrated M.Sc. in Chemistry from Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala.

Check out our new work chemrxiv.org/doi/abs/10.26434/chemrxiv.15006663/v1 titled as " Ground-state chemical reactivity under solvent-mode vibrational strong coupling". This study demonstrates that solvent vibrational strong coupling (VSC) significantly suppresses imine-forming chemical reactions—an effect directly measurable via NMR—highlighting its potential as a practical tool to tune reactivity in synthetic chemistry.

Congratulationsto Khushwinder Singh for qualifying his Comprehensive Examination July 2026.

Our group members Subha, Kavya, and Angelin presented their research at the first international conference on Chemistry, Structure and Dynamics of Molecules and Materials (CSDMM 2026), held from June 25–27, 2026, at the A. V. Rama Rao Auditorium in the Chemical Sciences Building, IISc.

We organised the symposium on the topic "Polaritonics for next generation materials" at the 2026 Spring Meeting of the "European Materials Research Society (E-MRS)" held at the Convention & Exhibition Centre of Strasbourg (France), from May 25 to 29, 2026 where Kavya, Harsh and Adiwitiya presented their work.

Many congratulations to Subha Biswas on giving his departmental PhD colloquium.

Anoop Thomas gave a talk at "Frontier of Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics"conference organized by Rice Global Paris Center at Rice University, Paris.

Khushwinder Singh presenting a poster at " Emerging Trends in Photodynamics and Photochemistry , 2026" organised at IISER Mohali,Punjab from 12-14 March, 2026.

Prof. Bert Meijer and Prof. Francesco Stellacci visited us at the Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry (IPC), IISc, for a special Half-day symposium. During their visit, we had engaging scientific discussions on our ongoing research and emerging directions in the field.

We are delighted to share our Spotlight on Application Article, "Emergent Properties When Molecules Meet the Electromagnetic Vacuum Field", published in ACS Applied Optical Materials. The journal has distinguished this work as an Editor's choice, underscoring its impact on the emerging field of vacuum - molecule interactions.

We are pleased to share that Anoop Thomas has been honored with the "APA Young Scientist Award" at the "13th Asian and Oceanian Photochemistry Conference (AOPC) 2025" held in Kochi, India.

We are delighted to announce that Anoop Thomas was invited to speak at the 27th Solvay Conference on Chemistry, 2025 - "Exploring Frontiers in Chemistry"held in Brussels - one of the world's most distinguished scientific meetings. His talk focused on "Chemistry under confined spaces"; showcasing ongoing research from our group.