Tenure-track Assistant Professor

Tomasz Smoleński - Principal Investigator

Experimental researcher working at the intersection of condensed matter physics, quantum materials and quantum optics.

In my research, I design custom low-dimensional electrically-tunable semiconductor structures and use to them to explore fundamental emergent quantum phenomena in low-temperature magneto-optical experiments. From 2018 to 2024, I worked as a Postdoc in the Quantum Photonics Group of Prof. Atac Imamoglu at ETH Zurich. My research activity was mainly focused on developing novel optical quantum sensing techniques for detecting and visualizing strongly correlated electronic phases in van der Waals heterostructures.

I obtained my PhD in 2018 at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw in Poland on optimizing the properties of ultimate magnetic memories based on the spin of an individual magnetic dopant embedded inside a semiconductor quantum dot. My experiments were carried out in the Laboratory of Ultrafast Magneto-Spectroscopy LUMS.

Office: 1.16b
E-mail: tomasz.smolenski-at-unibas.ch

Christian Wölfle

Administrative assistant, see Administrative Services of the Department of Physics

Office: 1.05
Phone: +41 (0)61 207 36 87
E-mail: christian.woelfle-at-unibas.ch

Lujun Wang

Lujun completed his PhD in the Quantum- and Nanoelectronics Group of Prof. Christian Schönenberger at the University of Basel, where he worked on in situ strain engineering of graphene and low-temperature quantum transport experiments. He then joined the Photonics Laboratory of Prof. Lukas Novotny at ETH Zürich as a postdoctoral researcher, expanding his expertise to optical spectroscopy and optoelectronics in 2D van der Waals heterostructures. Afterwards, he went on an excursion into industry, exploring the commercialization of quantum sensing with diamond NV centers and thermal scanning probe nanolithography. Now, with renewed enthusiasm and a broad research background, he is returning to academia - especially to Basel, which truly feels like going back home!

Office: 1.20
E-mail: lujun.wang-at-unibas.ch

Ferdinand Menzel

Ferdinand completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s in the group of Prof. Jonathan Finley at TU Munich working on low-temperature spectroscopy of 2D magnetic semiconductors. His research background is in the fabrication and characterization of custom van der Waals heterostructures of 2D materials, with which he studies tunable properties of 2D semiconductors to establish new material platforms for exploring quantum phenomena.

Office: 1.20
E-mail: ferdinandjohannes.menzel-at-unibas.ch

Jinu James

Jinu James brings a background in physics and materials science. He completed his master’s at IIT Kharagpur and conducted his thesis work in Prof Christoph Stampfer's group at RWTH Aachen under the DAAD KOSPIE fellowship, where he investigated valley-polarised photocurrent in 2D TMD lateral heterostructures. His research background includes sample fabrication and low-temperature polarisation-dependent/optoelectronic measurements aimed at understanding quantum phenomena in 2D materials.

Jinu will join the group on the 1st of August.

Team openings

Postdoctoral researcher / PhD student / Master student / Semester student

Are you interested in joining our team? We are always looking for new motivated members! Check out our openings for more information.