CAREER: Novel Plasmonic Properties of Individual Nanoparticle Chains Investigated by Correlated Structural Imaging and Single Particle Spectroscopy

化学系的高分子、超分子和纳米化学(MSN)项目将支持威廉·马什·赖斯大学化学系斯蒂芬·林克教授的职业发展计划。林克教授和他的学生将把新颖的单粒子光谱技术与电子显微镜方法相结合，以了解紧密堆积的纳米颗粒组件中金属纳米颗粒之间的能量耦合。了解纳米颗粒组装中的能量传递将最终决定自底向上化学合成和自组装纳米颗粒功能材料(如天线和波导)的成本效益平台的可行性和辅助开发，这些平台可以容忍NP尺寸、形状和有序性的变化。他和他的学生将把他们对纳米技术研究和发现的兴奋与外展活动联系起来，教育K-12学生纳米技术，并激励他们在与科学相关的领域从事职业。具体地说，PI将为K-12的学生开发关于NP大小和形状如何与颜色相关的讲座，以及如何在整体与单一粒子研究中观察到这种相关性。这些讲座将在莱斯大学的公民科学家项目中进行。拟议的项目将为物理学研究前沿的研究生提供极好的培训机会。

The Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry (MSN) program of the Division of Chemistry will support the CAREER development plan of Prof. Stephan Link of the Department of Chemistry at William Marsh Rice University. Prof. Link and his students will combine novel single particle optical spectroscopy techniques with electron microscopy methods in order to understand the energy coupling between metal nanoparticles in close packed nanoparticle assemblies. Understanding the energy transfer in nanoparticle assemblies will ultimately determine the feasibility and aid in the development of cost-effective platforms for bottom-up chemical synthesis and self-assembly of nanoparticle-based functional materials such as antennas and waveguides, which are tolerant of variations in NP size, shape, and ordering. The PI and his students will connect their excitement about research and discovery in nanotechnology with outreach activities to educate K-12 students about nanotechnology and inspire them about careers in science related fields. Specifically, the PI will develop lectures for K-12 students on how NP size and shape is related to color and how this correlation is observed in an ensemble vs. single particle study. These lectures will be presented in the Civic Scientist Program at Rice University. The proposed project will provide excellent training opportunities to graduate students at the research frontier of physical sciences.