Research
In my time as a researcher, I worked in Optics and Nanophotonics as an experimentalist, and my research was based on structured light and its interactions with nanomaterials
Currently, I work at King’s College London, in the Photonics & Nanotechnology group lead by Prof. Anatoly Zayats.
Using structured light as a tool to unveil materials properties, I also look into how the interaction with certain types of material can modify light itself, leading to the possibility of realising new platforms for light manipulation.
My publications
Polarisation conversion and optical meron topologies in anisotropic epsilon-near-zero metamaterials
Stemming from the initial investigation published with the Photonics Journal (IEEE), we kept investigating the role of spin-orbit coupling in the interaction of structured light with plasmonic metamaterials and we observed the formation of topologically nontrivial structures.
1/2025
Generating optical angular momentum through wavefront curvature
I joined Dr. Kayn Forbes for a theoretical work on the influence of the wavefront curvature on the angular momentum properties of a laser beam. We investigated how different polarisation states and various orders of Laguerre Gaussian beams can produce interesting angular momentum features.
1/2025
Longitudinal field controls vector vortex beams in anisotropic epsilon-near-zero metamaterials
A preprint containing most of the experimental results stemming from my PhD. A long and rewarding effort finally finding its shape on paper. My co-authors and I investigate how to use gold nanorods to modify the fundamental structure of laser beams.
10/2024
InFOCUS – Interaction of FOcused Complex beams with Uniaxial Slabs
An open-source software package published with King’s College London. If you know how to use MATLAB, with InFOCUS you can generate the field distribution of a laser beam propagating through a three-layer system. Have a go!
6/2024
Propagation of focused scalar and vector vortex beams in anisotropic media: A semianalytical approach
A detailed description of the semi-analytical model we wrote to study the propagation of focused laser beams in three-layered media.
3/2024
Enhancement of Optical Spin-Orbit Coupling in Anisotropic ENZ Metamaterials
Theoretical observation of spin-orbit coupling effects induced by. tight focusing of vector beams propagating through a sample of gold nanorods. Depending on the dispersion regime of the interaction, we demonstrated different ways to influence the beam’s properties.
12/2022
Vittorio Aita, PhD 