Dr. Gemma Fernandez Lopez - Secretary of the Board
Dr. Gemma Fernández López is a physicist specialising in semiconductor quantum optics and single quantum-dot spectroscopy. She completed her doctoral research at ETH Zürich, where her work investigated the optical physics of individual charge and spin states in self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots.
Her research sits within the modern quantum-optical development of Raman scattering, the light-scattering phenomenon whose discovery by C. V. Raman was recognised with the Nobel Prize in Physics. Building on the physics that emerged from that Nobel-recognised discovery, Fernández López and her collaborators demonstrated all-optically tunable Raman fluorescence from a single electron-charged quantum dot, showing that Raman photons could be generated and tuned within a solid-state quantum system.
Published in Physical Review Letters in 2009, the experiment used an optically driven quantum-dot Λ-system and demonstrated Raman-photon frequency tuning over approximately 2.5 GHz. The work contributed to the development of controllable solid-state quantum optical systems and to research relevant to quantum-dot spin physics, spin–photon interfaces and the investigation of interactions between confined spins and their surrounding environment.
The wider scientific significance of this work has continued to grow. The ability to generate and control single photons, interface confined quantum states with light, tune solid-state emitters and couple quantum dots to nanophotonic structures has become central to major areas of modern quantum technology. These capabilities underpin research toward quantum communication, quantum networks, photonic quantum computing, quantum-secured information transfer and integrated solid-state quantum photonics. Dr. Fernández López’s research belongs to the experimental development of this technological foundation: moving quantum-dot systems from objects of spectroscopy toward controllable interfaces between matter, spin and individual photons.
Her work on quantum-dot spins and photonic-crystal nanocavities also addressed a fundamental scaling problem in quantum technology: how spatially separated solid-state quantum states might communicate through controlled photonic modes. This direction has since become central to the development of distributed quantum systems and modular quantum-network architectures.
At the PALA Institute for Spiral Cognition, Dr. Fernández López serves as Secretary of the Board. She contributes to the Institute’s governance and provides scientific expertise across theoretical and experimental physics, helping to connect ambitious mathematical and conceptual research with the requirements of experimentally testable physical science.
Her background gives PALA direct experience in an area where fundamental physics has progressively developed into technologies with potential implications for secure communications, advanced computation, quantum networking and next-generation photonic devices. That perspective is particularly valuable to an institute concerned with moving original mathematical and theoretical architectures toward measurable real-world applications.
Today, Dr. Fernández López advises PALA’s scientific programme on questions involving quantum physics, experimental methodology, physical sensing and emerging technologies.
Selected Scientific Work
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G. Fernandez, T. Volz, R. Desbuquois, A. Badolato and A. Imamoglu, “Optically Tunable Spontaneous Raman Fluorescence from a Single Self-Assembled InGaAs Quantum Dot,” Physical Review Letters 103, 087406 (2009).
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G. Fernandez Lopez, Optical Spectroscopy of a Single Electron and Hole in InGaAs Quantum Dots, doctoral dissertation, ETH Zürich, 2009.
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A. Imamoğlu, S. Fält, J. Dreiser, G. Fernandez, M. Atatüre, K. Hennessy, A. Badolato and D. Gerace, “Coupling Quantum Dot Spins to a Photonic Crystal Nanocavity,” Journal of Applied Physics 101, 081602 (2007).