Welcome
to the

Quantum
Nanophotonics Group

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Iris Niehues

iris.niehues@uni-muenster.de

Interested in joining our group?
Please contact me to discuss possible topics for Bachelor or Master theses.

Investigating optical properties on the nanoscale

Our group focuses on the fundamental optical properties on the nanoscale of 2D materials and single-photon emitters to develop novel functionalities for quantum technology applications. We use near-field techniques to achive an optical resolution beyond the diffraction limit together with conventional techniques.

The group is funded by the NRW Rückkehrprogramm Quantentechnologie.

Oskar has joined our group for his master project. He and our guest Lena from Warsaw have finished their first week.
We wish them lots of fun in the office and the lab!

NOEKS17 conference in Marburg

We had a great time at NOEKS17 in the beautiful city of Marburg. Where else do you get a conference dinner in the historic hall of a castle?

Press conference of the ministry for science

Today, a new funding program from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia was announced at the state press conference. Iris was also invited to report on her experience with the return program.
Here is the original press release.

NRW Returnee Workshop in Münster

On August 27, 2025, Iris Niehues, Diana Khoromskaia, and Robert Hein organized a workshop for junior research group leaders funded by the NRW Return Program in the years 2021-2024. The focus was on scientific exchange, networking across disciplinary boundaries, and discussing career prospects in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Visit from Marita Wagner

We're excited to have Marita Wagner joining our group as a guest researcher! Marita is a PhD candidate in nanogune and biomagune from San Sebastián, Spain. I had the pleasure of knowing Marita during my own postdoctoral work at nanogune, and am excited for her visit. She's here for two weeks to explore our labs and  join in on scientific discussions. We're looking forward to a great visit!

Exciting talk for the Kids University

The lecture entitled „2D Wonderland - Light and Quantum“ explained the properties of quantum particles. We described them as tiny superheroes and superheroines with very special superpowers. For example, the photon superheroine is incredibly fast and can transmit messages. We exfoliated graphene, explored the photo effect, and made a pickle glow.

Thanks to the Kinder-Uni Münster and the Westfälische Nachrichten for organizing these wonderful events.

Many thanks to my nephews Lukas and Finn for great assistance. Also  the help of Niko, André, and Daniel is highly appreciated.

SPP 2244 summer school in Berlin

Max and Iris had a great time at the SPP2244 Summer School on "Polaritons and spectroscopic methods" in Berlin. Excellent organization by Patryk and Florian.
We heard insightful talks, visited nice labs at FU Berlin, had great discussions, and of course good food and drinks!

New publication on interlayer excitons in the near field

Nice collaboration with Oisín Garrity and Patryk Kusch from FU Berlin. In the paper we perform scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy of interplayer excitons in TMDC heteroscrutures. The method allows spatial resolution below the diffraction limit of weak excitonic resonances.
We contributed to the theoretical modelling.

4th Münster Symposium on Intelligent Matter

On this years MüSIM25 we had several interesting interdisciplinary talks and posters. Dennis took the opportunity to talk to other PhD candidates in the CRC1459.

Interview in the kids magazine "Frag Sophie!"

Iris was recently interviewed by Frag Sophie!, the popular science magazine for curious kids. In the recently published issue on Quantum Physics (Quantum 100), Sophie herself visited me in my lab to ask all sorts of clever questions!
During their conversation, Iris explained how we use an optical near-field microscope to explore the quantum world. Sophie was especially curious about how this technique helps us study color centers – tiny defects in crystals that can emit single photons and play a key role in future quantum technologies. It was a great opportunity to show how hands-on experiments like record players help us understand the invisible, and to share our enthusiasm for quantum research.
Thanks again to Sophie and the team for the nice visit!

Visit to Politechnika Wrocławska

Many thanks to Joanna Jadczak for the invitation to give a seminar talk at Wrocław University of Science and Technology.

It is always nice to come back, have great discussions, enjoy the city, have excellent food, and search for dwarfs! We also finally managed to see the Iris flowers in the botanical garden.

Annika has very successfully finished her Bachelor thesis!
We wish her a great Erasmus stay in Leiden.

We are growing further. Johannes is starting his PhD and Simone her Bachelor project.
We wish you lots of fun!

We welcome Niklas as a Bachelor student in our group. We wish you a great experience in the lab.

We welcome Dennis in our group.

He will work in our CRC 1459 project on Intelligent colour centre networks.

We wish you a good start and a fruitful collaboration with our colleagues in Twente!

We welcome Max as the first PhD student in our group.

We wish you a great start!

On Christmas our paper on 
Polarisation-dependent Raman enhancement in hexagonal boron nitride membranes
was published in Nanoscale.
 
Thanks to our collaborators at the University of Warsaw (Poland), DIPC and nanoGUNE (both San Sebastián, Spain) for all their effort.

This week Dr. Korbinian Kaltenecker from attocube has finished my new neascope setup.

Check out the video of my talk at the Near-field Optical Nanoscopy Summer School (June 2023):
youtube link
organized by CIC nanoGUNE BRTA, ENSEMBLE3 Centre of Excellence, and neaspec/attocube AG.
I talk about the negative phase contrast which is often observed in s-SNOM images and might hinder the identification of weak molecular absorptions. I explain its origin and methods to correct it.
The corresponding publication can be found here.

Interested in joining our group as a PhD student?
We also have topics for Bachelor and Master students.
Please contact Iris Niehues to discuss possible topics.
iris.niehues@uni-muenster.de

Iris Niehues succesfully defended her Start-Up project proposal during the CRC1459 all members retreat. The grant supports innovative projects to catalyse their integration into the CRC1459.
More details can be found here.

We took part in the BaMa–Tag!
Interested to join our group as a Bachelor or Master student?
Please contact Iris Niehues to discuss posible topics.
iris.niehues@uni-muenster.de

Wir waren beim BaMa-Tag dabei!
Interesse an einer Bachelor oder Masterarbeit?
Konatktiere uns ueber Iris Niehues um moegliche Projekte zu besprechen
iris.niehues@uni-muenster.de