Carlos Antón Solanas

Scientific achievements, communication, collaboration, leadership
I have published >45 papers, 14 [3] as 1st [last] author (7 as corresponding author in the last 5 years): 3 Nat. Photon., 1 Nat. Mater., 1 Nat. Nanotech., 4 Nat. Comms., 4 Optica, 6 PRL, 2 Nano-lett., 9 PRB, 3 APL. I gave >35 oral contributions in conferences (of which 10 as invited speak-er), and 25 invited seminars. In 2023, I co-edited the special issue Polaritonics in Optics Material Exp; I was also invited to write a review in quantum optical technologies for the journal Adv. Funct. Mater. (under review, 10.48550/arXiv.2312.09280). I have the “I3” and the “Profesor Contratado Doctor” certification.
Since Feb 2022, I am a “Atracción de Talento” group leader on quantum optics in the solid state. In 2023, I won 2 national projects (from private institutions) to research on quantum optics in the solid-state from the Fund. Ramón Areces (“Grants for Research in Life and Matter Science”, 127.000 €) and the Fund. BBVA (Leonardo grant for researchers in Physics, 40.000 €). In 2021, I obtained 2 competitive projects (La Caixa Junior Leader, declined in favour of the Talento Mod 1) becoming a group leader in Spain. In 2022, I also obtained the “Ramón y Cajal (senior)” com-petitive grant (RYC2021-030883-I), but I declined it. In Dec 2023, my coordinated project in the Quantera Call 2023 “COMPHORT” is funded (total 1.537 mill. €, 239 k€ for the UAM), consoli-dating my research network in EU.
In Germany (2019-22), I was a team leader in the Schneider’s group (Univ. Würzburg & Olden-burg). The relevance of my research in polaritonics with 2D materials is supported with the 1st demonstration of bosonic condensation of exciton-polaritons in 2D materials at cryogenic tem-peratures (Nat. Mat., 1st author) and at room temperature (Nat. Comm., last author).
In France (2015-19), as a team leader (IF Marie Skłodowska-Curie) in the Senellart’s group (CNRS), I pioneered the use of the photon-number Fock base to generate deterministic quantum superposition (Nat. Photon, 1st author) and entanglement (Nat. Photon, last author) from the emission of semiconductor QDs. I collaborated to the creation of new theory on photon-number entanglement with the theory groups of A. Auffèves (CNRS), C. Simon (U. Calgary) & A. Pre-dojevic (Stockholm Univ.).

Contribution to society, dissemination, collaboration with industry, public institutions
Member of the Spanish Royal Physics Society, the Condensed Matter Physics Division (2013-) and the Quantum Optics and Nonlinear Optics Specialist Group (2022-). I take part of the Com-munication Committee in the IFIMAC (see 1st newsletter). In Nov 23, I participated in the “Semana de la ciencia y la innovación” with the presentation “Ciencia y palomitas – introduc-ción a la luz”. In 2024-25, our group will participate to the QuanTour outreach activity, together with other European groups.
In Germany, I engaged in outreach with the monthly meeting “Postdoc Beer Coaching” (U. Ol-denburg), where postdocs and students from multidisciplinary fields discussed different topics. For younger ages, I participated as a speaker in the “Meet the Postdoc!”, where I explained to young students my career path. In France, I participated in two R&D activities with the startup Quandela: (1) developing the optical-fiber pasting onto micropillars to collect photons in a fiber; (2) benchmarking the performance of single-photon emitters in its 1st commercialized device to Andrew White’s group (Univ. Queensland).

Engagement in the scientific society, mentoring
I am a referee for the APS journals PR-L, -X, -A, -B, -App, -Research, Nature-Photon., Nature Physics, Nature Commun., Science Advances, Adv. Quantum Tech, Adv. Opt. Mat., Semicond. Science & Technology, APL, OMEx. Evaluator of the Spanish AEI, Dutch NWO, Polish NSC, French ANR agencies.
Without any official academic recognition, I have supervised 8 PhD and trained 7 postdocs. In 2022, I am part of the IfiMAC Mentoring Programme for female physics students. As a Prof. Habilitant in Oldenburg, I gave lectures in the Physics and Eng. Physics degrees and I created a new lecture “Solid State Quantum Photonics” for the Physics Master (2h/week, winter semester 2021). As a professor in the UAM, I teach in different courses in Physics, Chemistry and Bio-chemistry. I have tutored 3 TFGs in 2 years. In 2022, I participated in the Physics Master of the Univ. Oldenburg in the “Eramus+ mobility framework”, giving lectures on Quantum Optics and Atoms (16 h, 10-21/05/2022).

Scientific awards
In 2023, I received the “Leonardo award for physicists 2023” from the Fundación BBVA. During my PhD, I obtained 3 prices: “Best experimental Thesis” (Condensed Matter Physics Division-RSEF, January 2016), “Extraordinary Doctoral Thesis Prize” (Faculty of Sciences-UAM, May 2016), and “Young Researchers Prize in Materials Science” (INC, Dec. 2013).