Logan Blackham, a graduate researcher in the Department of Chemistry, has been awarded a prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation to support his work at the intersection of chemical physics and quantum optics. A member of the Mandal Group—a light-matter research team led by Dr. Arkajit Mandal at Texas A&M—Blackham has co-authored two research papers currently under review, including one as first author, since joining the group in October 2024.
Blackham’s current research explores how vacuum radiation interacts with matter inside optical cavities to tune material properties. In recent work, he developed a novel theoretical framework to explain and predict the spectral and transport behavior of exciton-polaritons—light–matter quasiparticles formed within optical cavities. His theory reveals how coupling to confined vacuum radiation can counteract thermal fluctuations that typically destroy quantum coherence, offering an explanation for recent experiments in which quantum features persist at room temperature in materials placed inside optical cavities—conditions under which they would ordinarily vanish.
Ultimately, Blackham aims to harness the ever-present vacuum radiation to help enable the development of next-generation quantum devices.