Organic dyes stabilized in nanopores and confined in polymeric photonic crystals for lasing and sensing devices

非技术摘要：该项目的目的是设计和制造一种强光源，即激光，使用有机染料、多孔宿主材料和光捕获装置。将使用几种方法将有机染料稳定在宿主材料内的纳米尺寸的孔中（一纳米是十亿分之一米）。当来自染料的光在称为光子晶体的光子捕获装置内被放大时，稳定的有机染料能够在其他光源的弱照明下以激光的形式发光。虽然这种染料激光器很难在固态中实现，但主要研究人员已经在初步研究中证明了这种新方法的可行性。多色激光源可以集成在一个光学芯片（类似于计算机中的电子芯片）中，用于通信和传感设备。这项研究还将为不同群体的本科生和研究生提供教育机会，并激励他们在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域发展自己的未来职业。技术摘要：本课题的目的是制备和研究稳定在金属-有机框架纳米孔中、限制在聚合物光子晶体中的有机染料激光和传感器件。在金属-有机骨架的基质中探索多目标发色团作为多色光源。智力上的优点是开发了具有高量子效率的低阈值激光，以及使用纳米孔内的有机染料的高灵敏度单激光模式传感器件。初步结果表明，将有机染料包封在金属-有机骨架的纳米孔中可以实现双光子泵浦微激光器。通过将稳定的有机染料限制在光子晶体中，无反光镜光子晶体腔可以降低激光器件的泵浦电平，提高传感器件的灵敏度。本项目的研究方法包括：通过调整金属-有机框架的纳米孔尺寸来优化染料的光致发光强度，从而有效地将有机染料封装在纳米孔中；研究稳定有机染料的自发光发射与光子晶体中的光子阻带之间的相互作用；研究所提出的染料激光器件的阈值和量子效率。通过将有机染料作为固态器件限制在光子晶体中，这些纳米孔稳定的有机器件可以潜在地集成到未来的光电子学中。更广泛的影响包括让研究生和本科生接触跨学科的教育，包括纳米尺度的化学、物理和工程、固态光电子学、光子和量子力学模拟，以及器件制造和表征。该项目还将把代表性不足的群体纳入计划的研究和教育活动。

Organic dyes stabilized in nanopores and confined in polymeric photonic crystals for lasing and sensing devices Nontechnical abstract: The objective of this project is to design and fabricate a strong light source, known as a laser, using organic dyes, porous host materials and photo-trapping devices. Several methods will be used to stabilize the organic dyes into the nanometer sized holes (one nanometer is one billionth of a meter) inside the host materials. The stabilized organic dyes are able to emit light as a laser under the weak illumination of other light sources when the light from the dyes is amplified inside a photon-trapping device known as a photonic crystal. The principal investigators have demonstrated the feasibility of such a novel approach in their preliminary studies though this kind of dye lasers are very difficult to realize in the solid state. Multi-color laser sources can be integrated in an optical-chip (similar to the electronic chip in a computer) for communication and sensing devices. This research will also provide educational opportunities to a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students and motivate them to develop their future careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Technical abstract: The objective of this project is to fabricate and study the lasing and sensing devices with organic dyes stabilized in nanopores of metal-organic frameworks and confined in polymer photonic crystals. Multiple target chromophores within the matrix of metal-organic frameworks will be explored as the multi-color light sources. The intellectual merit is the development of low-threshold lasing with high quantum efficiency, and high sensitive single-laser-mode based sensing devices using organic dyes confined in nanopores. Preliminary results show that a two-photon pumped micro-laser can be achieved by encapsulating organic dyes in nanopores of metal-organic frameworks. By confining the stabilized organic dyes in the photonic crystals, a mirror-less photonic crystal cavity can be used to lower the pumping level of lasing devices and increase the sensitivity of sensing devices. The research methods in this program include optimizing dye photoluminescence strength by tuning the nanopore sizes of metal-organic frameworks for an effective encapsulation of organic dyes in nanopores, studying the interaction between spontaneous light emission from stabilized organic dyes and photonic stop-band in the photonic crystals, and investigating the threshold and quantum efficiency of the proposed dye lasing device. By confining the organic dyes in photonic crystals as solid state devices, these nanopore stabilized organic devices can be potentially integrated in future optoelectronics. The broader impacts include exposing graduate and undergraduate students to an interdisciplinary education, including nano-scale chemistry, physics and engineering, solid state optoelectronics, photonic and quantum mechanical simulations, and device fabrication and characterization. The project will also integrate underrepresented groups in the planned research and educational activities.