Intereses de investigación primarios
Primary research interests

Our research group (Grupo de Electromagnetismo y Ondas, of which I am the Director) focuses on two active areas of current electromagnetism, nanophotonics and plasmonics. The common objective of research in these areas  is to control the emission and propagation of electromagnetic radiation through  structured materials, obtained by  combining two or more phases of a same material or different materials as well. This is of interest in a wide range of applications, including nano-scale guidance and manipulation, bio-detection of low concentrations of molecules, opto-electronic technology for signal transmission and processing, resolution below the optical limit, and control of spontaneous emission and of the energy transfer between molecules mediated by the electromagnetic modes of the structure.

Collaborations:

• Carlos J. Zapata-Rodríguez. Department: Optics and Optometry and Vision Sciences, University of Valencia, Spain.
•  Shiva Hayati Raad and Zara Atlasbaf, Tarbiat Modares University, Iran.
•  Francisco J. Ibañez, Laboratorio de Nanoscopías y Fisicoquímica de. Superficie-INIFTA-UNLP-CONICET, Argentina.
•  Ricardo Depine, Grupo de Electromagnetismo Aplicado, Departamento de Física, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

News

      Latest Research Publications:

• Julieta Olivo, Jorge Blengino Albrieu, Hernán Ferrari and Mauro Cuevas, Tuning the Electromagnetic Density Spectral Function in a Graphene-Dielectric Micro-Cavity, Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, (2025). In Press.
• Julieta Olivo, Hernán Ferrari and Mauro Cuevas, Enhancing the light–matter coupling using a 3D-graphene-dielectric-micro-cavity, Optics Letters 50, 6485-6488 (2025).
• J. Olivo, J. Blengino Albrieu, Mauro Cuevas, Optical Response of Graphene Quantum Dots in the Visible Spectrum: A Combined DFT-QED Approach, (2025), arXiv:2510.13769

• I am pleased to announce that Dr. Jorge Blengino Albrieu is joining our research group. His expertise in Density Functional Theory will be a valuable asset to our team.

• A warm welcome to Sandra Burrutia, who is starting today as a PhD student.

• New paper accepted in 2024: Journal of Chemical Physics. «Two–dimensional optical binding based on graphene surface plasmon excitation», Hernán Ferrari, Mauro Cuevas. Congratulations Hernán.
• New paper accepted in Optics Letters.  «Optical matter based on graphene surface plasmons», Hernán Ferrari, Mauro Cuevas. Congratulations Hernán.
•   New paper with Vivian, on tractor plasmonic sources, recently accepted in Optics Continuum.  Title: Optical force propelled by metamaterial surface waves excitation: pushing and tractor beam sources. Authors: Vivian Grunhut and Mauro Cuevas.

•   First paper of 2024, on non–local effects on the recoil force exerted on dielectric nanoparticles placed near a planar structure with graphene. It was recently accepted in Optics Letters: Surface recoil force on dielectric nano–particles enhancement via graphene acoustic surface plasmons excitation: non–local effects consideration, Julieta Olivo, Hernán Ferrari, Mauro Cuevas.

• Paper with Julieta has been highlighted as an Editor’s Pick. Title: Surface plasmon enhanced THz spontaneous emission near metal–cored wires coated with graphene, J Olivo and M Cuevas, Journal of the Optical Society of America B 40, 2023.                                                          Editor’s Picks serve to highlight articles with excellent scientific quality and are representative of the work taking place in a specific field.
• Paper recently accepted in Optics Letters,

Title: Optical pulling force on dielectric particles via metallic slab surface plasmon excitation: a comparison between transmission and reflection schemes

Authors: H Ferrari, V Herrero, M Cuevas.

Comment: In the Star trek movie, we can see the Enterprise tractor beam doing a fine job of pulling in a shuttle craft, towing another ship, or inhibiting the escape of an enemy spacecraft. By using a thin layer of gold material, in this paper,  we demonstrate the generation of the  tractor beam acting on silice nanoparticles.

• Paper recently accepted in Applied Optics,

Title: Graphene Surface Modes enabling Terahertz Pulling Force

Authors: H Ferrari, V HerreroCJ Zapata-Rodríguez, M Cuevas.

• Paper recently published in Journal of the Optical Society of America B, has been highlighted as an Editor’s Pick. Editor’s Picks serve to highlight articles with excellent scientific quality and are representative of the work taking place in a specific field.

Title: Graphene plasmons on attenuated total reflection structures: a route to achieve large optical pushing or pulling force intensities in the terahertz region, Journal of the Optical Society of America 

Authors: H Ferrari, CJ Zapata-Rodríguez, M Cuevas.

• Paper (with Carlos and Hernán) recently accepted in Optics Letters,

Title: Giant terahertz pulling force within an evanescent field induced by asymmetric wave coupling into radiative and bound modes, Optics Letters 47, 15 (2022)

Authors: Hernán Ferrari, Carlos J. Zapata Rodríguez and Mauro Cuevas

• Paper

Title: Terahertz binding of nanoparticles based on graphene surface plasmons excitations, Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer.

Authors: H Ferrari, CJ Zapata-Rodríguez, M Cuevas,

• Paper,

Title: Dispersion properties of plasmonic sub-wavelength elliptical wires wrapped with graphene, Journal of the Optical Society of America B, (2021)

Authors: Mauro Cuevas, Ricardo A. Depine

• Paper,

Title: Dyadic Green’s function for the graphene-dielectric stack with arbitrary field and source points, Journal of the Optical Society of America B 38, pp. 2368-2375 (2021)

Authors: S H Raad, Z Atlasbaf, M Cuevas

• Paper in which it has been proposed an axisymmetric silicon nanoresonator for extraordinary enhancement of the decay rate of magnetic emitters (magnetic light).

Multipolar-sensitive engineering of magnetic dipole spontaneous emission with a dielectric nanoresonator antenna, Scientific Reports (2021).

Authors: Mojtaba Karimi Habil, Carlos J. Zapata–Rodríguez, Mauro Cuevas, and Samad Roshan Entezar.

• Paper  in which the optical properties of a localized surface plasmon spaser made of a dielectric active wire coated with a graphene monolayer are studied. Authors  focused on the lasing conditions and the tunability of the spaser in infrared/THz frequency range.

Spaser and Optical Amplification Conditions in Graphene-Coated Active Wires, Journal of the Optical Society of America B, (2021)

Authors: Leila Prelat, Mauro Cuevas, Nicolás Passarelli, Raúl A. Bustos-Marún, Ricardo A. Depine.

• Paper where lasing properties on a nanometric structure with PT-symmetry, spatial parity and time inversion, are studied.

Lasing condition for trapped modes in subwavelength-wired PT-symmetric resonators

Mauro Cuevas, Mojtaba Karimi Habil, and Carlos J. Zapata-Rodríguez, Optics Express 29 (2021)

• 2º Simposio de Nanomateriales 2D , Grafeno, Dispositivos y Aplicaciones, Facultad Regional Buenos Aires UTN, December 3-4, 2020