Hello, and thank you for visiting. I am Kishan, a physicist at Monash University who is fascinated by what happens when light and matter meet in very small spaces. I trap light in optical cavities, focus it with metal nanoparticles and guide it through atomically thin crystals, and I use these tools to steer chemistry, sense molecules and create quantum light. I enjoy explaining these ideas as much as exploring them, and I am always happy to talk science.
I place molecules inside optical cavities, where light and matter share energy and form hybrid states called polaritons. This opens a fresh way to tune chemistry and sensing.
Metal nanoparticles focus light into tiny hot spots. I use them to drive reactions such as the conversion of CO2, and I watch single particles at work with optical microscopy.
Atomically thin crystals host bright single-photon emitters and strong nonlinear optics. I explore them as compact building blocks for quantum technologies.
Dr Kishan S. Menghrajani
Research Fellow, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Nanophotonics · Light–matter interaction · Plasmonic photocatalysis · Mathematical modelling of waves
Email: kishansmresearch@gmail.com
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Kishan Menghrajani is a physicist working on light–matter interaction in nanophotonics: how light confined in optical cavities, metal nanostructures and nanoparticles changes the behaviour of the matter it interacts with. His work combines nanofabrication, optical spectroscopy and mathematical modelling, and has produced 14 peer-reviewed journal articles, including Physical Review Letters and Nature Communications, cited more than 600 times.
He is a Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Monash University, where he works with Prof. Akshat Tanksale and Prof. Murali Sastry on plasmonic photocatalysis for light-driven CO₂ conversion. From 2023 to 2025 he worked with Prof. Stefan Maier in the School of Physics and Astronomy on single-particle optical metrology, establishing a single-particle dark-field microscopy facility built around a supercontinuum laser. He received his PhD in physics from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom, in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Metamaterials, and was a postdoctoral research fellow there with Prof. Bill Barnes from 2020 to 2023.
Molecular strong coupling and polaritons, from mid-infrared vibrations to visible excitons
Mathematical modelling of waves and resonances in layered, periodic and open structures
Plasmonic photocatalysis and solar fuels
Single-particle optical metrology and correlative optical and electron microscopy
Nanophotonic design of room-temperature quantum light sources
2026 Lead investigator, Monash Engineering Early Career Researcher Support and Enabling Scheme
2026 Lead investigator, Monash Engineering Australia/Malaysia Travel Scheme, with A/Prof Lling-Lling Tan, Monash University Malaysia
2026 Australian Synchrotron (SAXS) and ANSTO neutron (SANS) beamtime awards, as co-proposer
2026 Talk at the Gordon Research Conference on Catalysis, USA
2025 Correlative optical and electron microscopy of single bimetallic nanoparticles, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (first author)
2025 Visible-light CO₂ hydrogenation on plasmonic AgPt nanoprisms, EES Catalysis
2025 Co-taught CHE3172 Nanotechnology and Materials I at Monash University
2024 Invited article on molecular strong coupling and cavity finesse, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
R. Arul, K. S. Menghrajani, M. S. Rider, R. Chikkaraddy, W. L. Barnes, J. J. Baumberg. Raman probing the local ultrastrong coupling of vibrational plasmon polaritons on metallic gratings. Physical Review Letters 131, 126902 (2023).
P. A. Thomas, K. S. Menghrajani, W. L. Barnes. All-optical control of phase singularities using strong light–matter coupling. Nature Communications 13, 1809 (2022).
K. S. Menghrajani, A. B. Vasista, W. J. Tan, P. A. Thomas, F. Herrera, W. L. Barnes. Molecular strong coupling and cavity finesse (invited). The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 15, 7449 (2024).
K. S. Menghrajani, F. McLaren, S. A. Maier, M. Sastry. Structure–property analysis of bimetallic plasmonic nanoparticles using correlative optical and electron microscopy. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 129, 19100 (2025).
G. Bhardwaj, F. McLaren, K. S. Menghrajani, S. Mahasivam, S. A. Maier, M. Sastry, A. Tanksale. Visible-light photocatalytic CO₂ hydrogenation using surface-alloyed plasmonic AgPt nanoprisms. EES Catalysis 3, 811 (2025).
K. S. Menghrajani, W. L. Barnes. Strong coupling beyond the light-line. ACS Photonics 7, 2448 (2020).
Full list on the Publications page.
14 peer-reviewed journal articles and 2 conference papers, cited more than 600 times
Principal Investigator, Royal Society International Exchanges grant (2022–2023)
Lead investigator on two 2026 Monash Engineering grants; co-proposer on two 2026 ANSTO beamtime awards
Co-supervisor of an IITB–Monash Research Academy PhD scholar
Reviewer for Advanced Materials, ACS Photonics and five other journals