2024 Henry Moseley Medal and Prize
Dr Rohit Chikkaraddy for outstanding contributions to extreme confinement of light at atomic scales to see the invisible interaction of light with molecular bonds at room temperature.
Dr Rohit Chikkaraddy is a nano-optical physicist who constructed the world’s tiniest optical cavity and made extreme light confinement at atomic scales possible. His imaginative and difficult experiments opened new avenues in light–matter coupling at the picoscale and provided new technological routes to see invisible mid-infrared light at room temperature, previously deemed inaccessible.
With a new class of picocavities made of metallic nanofacets, he trapped light to below one cubic nanometre and created a strongly coupled hybrid quantum state of half-light half-matter nature at room temperature for the first time. Leveraging this groundbreaking work, he used molecular optomechanics to manipulate single chemical bond vibrations that unlocked paradigm-shifting possibilities in light-controlled physics and chemistry of materials. This impactful work influenced several fields, including the emergence of picophotonics, and led to the establishment of a new interdisciplinary international workshop Strong Coupling of Organic Molecules (SCOM), now with four successful editions.
Tapping on light perturbation, Chikkaraddy then demonstrated an optical modulation technique to see a new spectral range, mid-infrared, using visible light. Surpassing the diffraction limit by a trillion-fold, he achieved detection down to a single-bond vibrational level. This breakthrough allowed the world’s first measurement of a single molecule’s mid-infrared spectrum. This new method to read-out a molecule’s vibrational fingerprint is catalysing advancements, leading to a patent filing, grants, and is being developed for a high-speed detection technology.
Chikkaraddy’s work has been published in leading journals and has garnered more than 5800 citations, remarkable for his early career stage. His work laid the basis for an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Impact Acceleration Account Starter Grant and large grants involving large-scale international collaborations. In 2022, he secured a permanent academic position at the University of Birmingham and envisions advancing nanophotonics to nanodevices for sensing and healthcare. In addition, Chikkaraddy has won internationally competitive awards including a Junior Research Fellowship from Trinity College, Cambridge, for his postdoctoral research, British Council scholarship and Nobel Lindau Foundation grants.
Chikkaraddy is a STEM Ambassador and is passionate about promoting equity in STEM. For over a decade, he has been mentoring students from historically underrepresented backgrounds and supporting them in securing higher education scholarships. He regularly delivers open lectures and hosts discussions to attract younger minds to science and to create a more diverse and inclusive academic landscape.