Plasmonic devices for controlling light at the nanoscale

该计划的目标是开发新的等离子体结构和设备，用于操纵光，并通过激发亚波长等离子体模式在纳米尺度上增强光与物质的相互作用，用于传感，开关和光电子学中的设备应用。其智力价值是通过探索纳米等离子体结构和器件来增强非线性光学效应、全光吸收开关、超紧凑传感器和等离子体增强薄膜光伏太阳能电池，从而大大推进了纳米等离子体技术的发展。拟议的研究具有潜在的变革性，因为该计划的结果可能会为器件应用带来新的机会，这将代表集成光学，光学信息处理和可再生能源的重要突破。更广泛的影响是光子科学和工程的根本性突破，这是一个深刻影响人类生活质量的领域。该计划还将为两名研究生提供良好的培训机会。此外，作为推广和教育工作的一部分，将推出一门关于纳米光子学的新课程，其中将使用数字代码来加深学生？了解纳米光子器件的基本物理。还将特别关注将本科生纳入研究计划，以及对当地社区的宣传，并招募少数民族研究生从事这一计划。

The objective of this program is to develop new plasmonic structures and devices for manipulating light and enhancing light-matter interactions at the nanoscale through the excitation of subwavelength plasmonic modes for device applications in sensing, switching, and photovoltaics. The intellectual merit is to greatly advance the state of the art of nanoplasmonics by exploring nanoscale plasmonic structures and devices for enhancement of nonlinear optical effects, all-optical absorption switches, ultra-compact sensors, and plasmon-enhanced thin-film photovoltaic solar cells. The proposed research is potentially transformative, since the results of the program may lead to new opportunities for device applications, which will represent important breakthroughs in integrated optics, optical information processing, and renewable energy sources. The broader impacts are fundamental breakthroughs in photonics science and engineering, a field which profoundly influences the quality of human life. This program will also provide excellent training opportunities for two graduate students. In addition, as part of the efforts on outreach and education, a new course on nanophotonics will be introduced in which numerical codes will be used to deepen the students? understanding of the basic physics of nanophotonic devices. Special focus will also be placed on incorporating undergraduate students into the research program, as well as on outreach to the local communities, and on recruiting minority graduate students to work on this program.