Mathias VANWOLLEGHEM

Research Manager
IEMN Laboratory - UMR 8520
Avenue Henri Poincaré
59652 Villeneuve d'Ascq
France
+33 (0)3 20 19 78 77
mathias.vanwolleghem@univ-lille.fr

Mathias Vanwolleghem graduated as an engineer in theoretical physics in 2000 at Ghent University in Belgium. He received his PhD in May 2005 from the same University in the Photonics Group of the Department of Information Technology, on the theoretical and experimental investigation of new concepts for monolithically integrated ferromagnetic metal- and InP-based optical isolators. He subsequently joined the Institut d’Electronique Fondamentale at Université Paris XI in Orsay, France (now C2N) as a postdoctoral researcher further specializing in numerical modeling of nanophotonic and plasmonic nonreciprocal phenomena. In 2006 he obtained a CNRS research scientist position focusing on novel optical nonreciprocal phenomena. In September 2012 he joined the THz Photonics group of the IEMN Laboratory in Villeneuve d’Ascq, France, where he is currently leading the group’s research activities on ultrafast light-matter interactions in the presence of magnetic media with a particular focus on femtosecond spin dynamics. A parallel research interest concerns Si-compatible chipscale integration of THz devices, focussing mainly on sensing and spectroscopy applications. Throughout his career, Mathias Vanwolleghem has authored over 40 journal papers and 100 conference talks, and has organised several international workshops in the field of THz photonics, and magneto-optics and ultrafast magnetism. He holds 5 patents on the different topics he has specialized in. He has acted as coordinator or principal investigator in 15 French and EU funded research programs. He has served for 10 years as an editor for Elsevier’s « Photonics and Nanostructures — Fundamentals and Applications » (2013-2023). He was an elected CoNRS committee member for Section8 between 2017-2021

Current Research Interests

  • THz and MIR magneto-optics
  • ultrafast THz spin dynamics
  • chipscale integrated THz spectroscopy

Five selected publications

[1] Pierre Kolejak, Geoffrey Lezier, Daniel Vala, Baptiste Mathmann, Lukas Halagaka, Zuzana Gelnarova, Yannick Dusch, Jean-Francois Lampin, Nicolas Tiercelin, Kamil Postava, and Mathias Vanwolleghem (2024). Maximizing the electromagnetic efficiency of spintronic terahertz emitters. Advanced Photonics Research, DOI: 10.1002/adpr.202400064
[2] Koleják, P., Lezier, G., Postava, K., Lampin, J.-F., Tiercelin, N., & Vanwolleghem, M. (2022). 360° Polarization Control of Terahertz Spintronic Emitters Using Uniaxial FeCo/TbCo_2/FeCo Trilayers. ACS Photonics, 9(4), 1274-1285. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.1c01782
[3] Jalas D, Petrov A, Eich M, Freude W, Fan S, Yu Z, Baets R, Popović M, Melloni A, Joannopoulos J D, Vanwolleghem M, Doerr C R, Renner H. What is — and what is not — an optical isolator. Nature Photonics. 2013;7(8):579–582. Available at:http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nphoton.2013.185.
[4] W. Smigaj, J. Romero-Vivas, B. Gralak, L. Magdenko, B. Dagens, M. Vanwolleghem, « Magnetooptical circulator designed for operation in uniform external magnetic field », Opt. Lett. 35(4), 568-570 (2010).
[5] M. Vanwolleghem, X. Checoury, W. Smigaj, B. Gralak, L. Magdenko, K. Postava, B. Dagens, P. Beauvillain, J.-M. Lourtioz « Unidirectional band gaps in uniformly magnetized two-dimensional magnetophotonic crystals » Physical Review. B, vol. 80 (12), 121102(R), 4 pages, 2009