Project Details
Description
Nanotechnology has been both scientifically fruitful and commercially successful in many arenas, but the application of nanomaterials systems based on light-matter interactions has been slowed dramatically by limitations in our fundamental knowledge of these interactions. These limitations have been reinforced by the difficulty in reliably making sophisticated nanoscale materials and subsequently measuring their properties. Herein, we propose to answer the most fundamental questions in this field through a novel approach wherein the unique synthetic and assembly capabilities of the Mirkin lab are paired with the characterization capabilities of the Jang lab. In short, we will pair the bottom-up synthetic and assembly techniques of a chemist with the high resolution measurement techniques of a physicist. This research will have two thrusts; the first will focus on the interactions between electric fields and the vibrational modes of materials as measured by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. This research will likely result in high sensitivity molecular sensors and offer a path towards molecular fingerprinting with electrical readout, a technology which would provide a highly portable and parallelizable molecular sensor. The second thrust will address the fundamental interactions between semiconductor heterostructures and plasmonically active metal structures. Advances in this thrust may result in extraordinarily sensitive photosensors and enhanced efficiency photovoltaics. This proposed research is unique in the community because is based upon novel synthetic tools and bio-inspired assembly approaches coupled with in depth optoelectronic measurements that will allow us to study the fundamental light-matter interactions that must be understood in order to construct important devices.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 8/14/13 → 8/13/17 |
Funding
- U.S. Air Force Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development (FA2386-13-1-4124)
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