About Me

I am a joint DOE/MIT School of Science fellow currently working with Prof. Marin Soljacic as a graduate student. My current research interests are at the interface between nanophotonics (the manipulation of electromagnetic fields on the nanoscale) and quantum electrodynamics (the study of electromagnetic fields, matter, and their interactions). The (admittedly very broad) question I’m interested in is: what are the limitations on our ability access conventionally inaccessible light-matter interactions using nanophotonics?

My research interests include: extending quantum field theory calculational machinery to nanophotonics, enabling forbidden light-matter interactions, optical response of solid-state systems (to design platforms for observing high-order QED effects in nanophotonics), and general properties of linear wave systems. For more detailed information, I invite you to read my short descriptions of bound states in the continuum, enabling forbidden transitions via polaritons, and tailoring selection rules via shaped polariton wavepackets.

For more information, please see my publications and CV. And feel free to contact me (nrivera at mit dot edu).