We study light that behaves like matter. Our polaritons form quantum fluids, supersolids and nonlinear circuits, and we grow the materials that bring them to room temperature.
Exciton-polaritons are half light and half matter. They move like photons and interact like electrons, so a fluid of polaritons can flow without friction, carry quantised vortices and switch light with light. We use them to explore new states of matter and to build optical devices that are faster and more efficient.
We are part of CNR NANOTEC, the Institute of Nanotechnology of the Italian National Research Council, on the Ecotekne campus in Lecce. Samples, devices and measurements are made here, under one roof.
Physicists, chemists and engineers working on light–matter physics, from crystal growth to quantum optics.
Daniele SanvittoGroup leader
Dario BallariniDirector of Research
Milena De GiorgiTechnology Director
Dimitris TrypogeorgosSenior Researcher
Lorenzo DominiciResearcher
Giovanni MartoneResearcher
Rosanna MastriaResearcher
Francesco TodiscoResearcher
Paolo CazzatoTechnician
Antonio GianfratePostdoc
Paolo ComaronPostdoc
Deborah CapecchiPostdoc
Ivan GnusovPostdoc
Laura PolimenoPostdoc
Anand VinodPhD studentEight connected lines of work, all built on strong light–matter coupling.
Superfluidity, quantised vortices, turbulence and phase transitions in fluids made of light.
69 papersBand-engineered polariton condensates in photonic-crystal waveguides, from bound states in the continuum to a supersolid of light.
15 papersGuiding, amplifying, switching and lasing with polaritons on a chip, at cryogenic and room temperature.
26 papers
Polaritons one at a time: quantum states, photon correlations and the road to polariton blockade.
13 papersBerry curvature, quantum geometry, spin textures and light beams with structured polarisation.
26 papers
Physical neural networks built from interacting light, and computing with complex optical media.
9 papers
2D perovskites, transition-metal dichalcogenides and organic semiconductors, grown and processed in house.
76 papers
Theory and experiment with ultracold atoms, the matter-wave counterpart of our fluids of light.
12 papers
Science Advances · 2026
Small Structures · 2026
Nature Communications · 2026From 22 to 24 July 2026 we host LEAF 2026, an interdisciplinary international workshop at CNR Nanotec in Lecce, organised by Daniele Sanvitto with Giovanni Modugno (LENS). It brings together experiment and theory on collective dynamics, phase transitions and emergent phenomena in ultracold atoms, photon and polariton condensates, excitonic systems and nonlinear fluids of light.
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Visitors, seminars, defences and farewells: the group is a place where people stay in touch long after they leave.
We welcome master’s students, PhD candidates and postdocs in physics, materials science and engineering. Experiments here run from crystal growth to quantum optics, and ideas are discussed on their merits, whoever has them.