Abstract

Controlling how light interacts with matter lies at the heart of modern science and technology. Recent advances in materials science and nanophotonics now make it possible to design optical properties from the bottom up, by engineering nanoscale structures and hybrid materials. In this talk, I will present our efforts to create nanomaterial hybrids that offer unprecedented control over light–matter interactions.

I will begin with DNA-assembled nanoparticle lattices, where programmable molecular scaffolds enable precise organization of metallic and dielectric nanoparticles into photonic architectures. These self-assembled systems open new opportunities for tunable resonances, strong coupling, and reconfigurable optical responses. I will then discuss quantum-dot embedded polymers and metasurfaces, which combine emissive nanomaterials with scalable fabrication platforms to achieve active light emission, spectral tuning, and integration into flat optical devices.

Throughout the talk, I will highlight how inverse design, 3D printing, and machine learning extend the design space for these materials, bridging bottom-up chemistry with top-down engineering. By uniting concepts from physics, chemistry, materials science, and electrical engineering, nanomaterial hybrids are emerging as versatile platforms for applications in imaging, computation, and quantum information science.

Biography

Dr. Koray Aydin is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Applied Physics Graduate Program,  where he leads the Metamaterials and Nanophotonic Devices Laboratory. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the Bilkent University in 2002 and 2008, respectively. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher between 2008-2010 and a research scientist between 2010-2011 at the California Institute of Technology under the supervision of Prof. Harry Atwater. His research interests span several cross-cutting research directions in nanophotonics, including metamaterials and metadevices, plasmonics, inverse-design and machine-learning assisted nanophotonic design, 2D materials, phase-change materials, DNA-assembled and 3D printed nanophotonic materials. Dr. Aydin received the prestigious 2017 ONR Young Investigator Program Award. In 2019, he is selected as The Top Outstanding Young Person (TOYP) in Turkey in the field of scientific and technological development. His work bridges physics, chemistry, materials science, and engineering, with applications ranging from imaging and computation to quantum information.