Humar Lab

Matjaž Humar received the Zois Award for outstanding scientific achievement, Slovenia’s highest honor in science. The ceremony took place on November 9, 2025, at Cankarjev Dom and was broadcast live on national television. Prime Minister Dr. Robert Golob delivered the keynote address.

Matjaž Humar has received the ERC Consolidator Grant in the amount of 2.3 million EUR. Within the grant SoftQuanta, we will develop novel quantum light sources based on soft and biological materials.

📸 Marjan Verč

Zala Korenjak received ‘Dr. Uroš Seljak Prize’ for the best scientific publications by students.

Matjaž Humar has received ERC Proof of Concept grant. The EdibleLasers project aims to create lasers entirely from edible materials and use them as sensors and barcodes in food, pharmaceuticals, and other products.

We have published a paper in Nature! We demonstrated for the first time tunable generation of entangled photons in a liquid crystal.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_qN3dHR8Gk

Paper: Vitaliy Sultanov, Aljaž Kavčič, Manolis Kokkinakis, Nerea Sebastián, Maria V. Chekhova, Matjaž Humar, Entangled photons from liquid crystals, a new paradigm of tunable quantum light sources, Nature (2024), https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07543-5

Tuneable entangled photon pair generation in a liquid crystal Video authors: Aljaž Kavčič, Nerea Sebastian and Matjaž HumarFilming: Jaka KorenjakThis work was published in Nature:Vitaliy Sultanov, Aljaž Kavčič, Manolis ...

Our work on soap bubble lasers was highlighted in a number of news outlets, including on the cover of Physics Today, in New Scientist, on national TV (Prvi Dnevnik and Dobro Jutro), radio (VAL202) and various newspapers and websites (Delo, Nedeljski Dnevnik, MMC, 24ur,...).

https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/77/3/12/3267372/Bubble-lasers-can-be-sturdy-and-sensitiveMade-of

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2402943-tiny-lasers-can-be-made-from-soap-bubbles/

https://www.rtvslo.si/rtv365/arhiv/175027824?s=tv

https://365.rtvslo.si/arhiv/prvi-dnevnik/175016041

https://www.delo.si/novice/znanoteh/tudi-celice-in-milni-mehurcki-so-lahko-laserji/

We have published a paper in Nanoscale where we demonstrate that hexagonal boron nitride quantum emitters can be used inside cells as single-photon sources and barcodes. The use of color centers as barcodes is completely unique and has never been demonstrated before.
https://doi.org/10.1039/D3NR05305A

Aljaž Kavčič, Rok Podlipec, Ana Krišelj, Andreja Jelen, Daniele Vella, Matjaž Humar, Intracellular biocompatible hexagonal boron nitride quantum emitters as single-photon sources and barcodes, Nanoscale (2024).

We have published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) where we developed droplet-based optical stiffness and force sensors for the study of biological tissues.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2314884121

Gregor Pirnat, Matevž Marinčič, Miha Ravnik, Matjaž Humar, Quantifying local stiffness and forces in soft biological tissues using droplet optical microcavities, PNAS 121, e2314884121 (2024).

We have demonstrated for the first time that a soap bubble can be turned into a laser. Our study was published in Physical Review X.
Zala Korenjak and Matjaž Humar, Smectic and Soap Bubble Optofluidic Lasers, Phys. Rev. X 14, 011002 (2024).
https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevX.14.011002
The paper was also Featured in Physics: https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/3

Soap bubble lasers We have demonstrated for the first time that smectic and soap bubbles can be used as lasers. We doped the bubbles with a fluorescent dye and pumped them with...

Miha Papič received the prestigious dr. Uroš Seljak award. Congratulations!

Na Univerza v Ljubljani / University of Ljubljana so danes že drugič podelili nagrade in pohvale dr. Uroša Seljaka za najboljše znanstvene članke študentk in študentov. Nagrade so podelili rektor Univerze v Ljubljani prof. dr. Gregor Majdič, donator prof. dr. Uroš Seljak in Ameriško-slovenska izobraževalna fundacija (ASEF).

Med prejemniki nagrade je tudi Miha Papič za objavljeno znanstveno delo z naslovom Topological liquid crystal superstructures as structured light lasers; raziskave je opravljal na Odseku za fiziko trdne snovi Institut "Jožef Stefan", za mentorstvo pri njegovem delu pa je plaketo prejel tudi njegov mentor doc. dr. Matjaž Humar, vodja Laboratorija za biointegrirano fotoniko in sodelavec Odseka za fiziko trdne snovi Institut "Jožef Stefan" .

Tekoči kristali se zaradi svojih edinstvenih lastnosti uporabljajo v številnih optičnih napravah, med drugim v tekočekristalnih zaslonih in laserjih. Za njihovo uporabo je ključna dvolomnost molekul tekočega kristala ter njihova sposobnost spontane tvorbe kompleksnih dvo- in tridimenzionalnih struktur.
Doslej so se v laserjih uporabljale le razmeroma preproste tekočekristalne ureditve, v nagrajenem delu pa je Miha Papič pokazal, da uporaba kompleksnejših struktur v laserskih mikroresonatorjih omogoča generacijo bolj kompleksne laserske svetlobe. Ker se molekule barvila, ki ga uporabljajo za vir svetlobe v laserskem resonatorju, zaradi svoje strukture poravnajo s tekočekristalnimi molekulami, omogočijo, da ojačajo samo lasersko svetlobo z obliko in polarizacijo, ki jo definira tekočekristalna struktura, kar ponudi edinstven vpogled v interakcijo svetlobe z netrivialnimi tekočekristalnimi strukturami.
Poleg tega se lahko tekočekristalne strukture spreminjajo in oblikujejo s pomočjo električnega polja ali laserske pincete, kar omogoča tudi nadziranje laserskih načinov in polarizacije tekočekristalnih laserjev med delovanjem laserja.

Nagrade in pohvale dr. Uroša Seljaka, letos so podelili po tri, so namenjene spodbujanju in podpiranju znanstvenih objav študentk in študentov na študijskih programih prve in druge stopnje ter spodbujanju mentoriranja študentk in študentov v Republiki Sloveniji.

Čestitamo!

📷: Nebojša Tejić / STA

President of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar visited our lab.

We have published a paper in Nature Communications, where we demonstrate deep tissue imaging and sensing using optical microcavity probes.

Aljaž Kavčič, Maja Garvas, Matevž Marinčič, Katrin Unger, Anna Maria Coclite, Boris Majaron, Matjaž Humar, Deep tissue localization and sensing using optical microcavity probes, Nature Communications 13, 1269 (2022).

Deep tissue localization and sensing using optical microcavity probes - Nature Communications Optical microcavities are useful as probes in cells due to their narrow emission spectra and high sensitivity to environment. Here, the authors use the unique spectral features of microcavities, which are unaffected by tissue scattering, and show 3D localisation and tracking of cells deep in tissues...