Welcome to Tomasz Smoleński's webpage

images/cv_new_pict.jpg

I am a scientist, engineer and quantum physicist with over 13 years of research experience in condensed matter physics and quantum optics, with a particular focus on opto-electronic explorations of semiconductor micro- and nano-structures. 

I work as a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher in the Quantum Photonics Group of Prof. Atac Imamoglu at ETH Zurich. My current research activity is mainly focused on developing novel quantum sensing techniques for detecting and visualizing landmark strongly correlated electronic phases in two-dimensional materials including monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides. 

I obtained my PhD in 2018 at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw 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.


Feel free to learn more about my research interests and scientific papers. You may also want to check my citations at Google Scholar or visit my LinkedIn profile.

Contact: tomaszs_at_phys.ethz.ch

Research Highlights

Direct optical signature of the electronic

 Wigner crystal

If the strength of interactions between the electrons in 2D semiconductor exceeds their kinetic energy, the electrons form a spatially-ordered, Wigner crystal state. Here we provide a direct evidence for the emergence of this elusive state of matter using a novel optical technique that relies on the observation of exciton umklapp scattering in the periodic potential generated by the electrons forming the crystal.

T. Smoleński et al.,  Nature 595, 53-57 (2021)

Read more

Evidence for unusual electronic magnetism in an extended 2D system

In typical metals or ferromagnets, collective electronic magnetism arises due to the exchange interaction, which allows the electrons to lower their Coulomb repulsion by aligning their spins. Here we provide a direct experimental evidence for a different, Nagaoka ferromagnetism that occurs due to minimization of kinetic energy of itinerant electrons.

L. Ciorciaro, T. Smoleński et al.,
Nature 623, 509-513 (2023)

Read more