OP: Collaborative Research: Nanoscale Synthesis, Characterization and Modeling of Rationally Designed Plasmonic Materials and Architectures

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Nontechnical Description: This collaborative and interdisciplinary project brings together both experimentalists and theorists to explore advanced optical materials and devices. This is accomplished using new materials processing methods, advanced characterization techniques, and state-of-the-art theoretical/computational models. The materials and devices have practical applications such as improved solar energy conversion, chemical sensors, and faster as well as higher data storage capacity for computing. The project explores new material combinations and architectures to optimize the way different frequencies of light can be harnessed and manipulated. Advanced materials processing methods are developed to create complex two-dimensional and three-dimensional arrangements of these optical materials. One goal of the project is to train both graduate and undergraduate students to function in a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment. To accomplish this, the graduate students work closely with the collaborating institutions which cross-cut several research areas: materials synthesis (materials science and engineering), materials characterization (chemistry), and theory/simulation (chemistry and applied mathematics). Undergraduate students are impacted by the development of a new multi-institutional and interdisciplinary design project. Technical Description: The overarching goal of this activity is to study new plasmonic materials and architectures for advanced optical and metamaterial concepts with a broad spectral tunability across the visible and near-IR. This goal is realized via the execution of three overarching objectives. The first objective comprises a systematic study of the synthesis, characterization, and theory/modeling of Au-Al, Ag-Al binary, and Au-Ag-Al ternary alloys with the goal of correlating the materials nanostructure to the fundamental optical properties and full plasmonic spectrum. The second objective aims to rationally design, synthesize, and characterize innovative 2D plasmonic nanoarchitectures that incorporate multi-material dimer/oligomer systems, templated substrates that induce asymmetric dielectric coupling, and advanced lithographic/focused ion beam nanomachining for pushing the limits of small size/narrow gaps. The third objective seeks understanding of the far- and near-field optical properties of new 3D plasmonic nanoarchitectures synthesized via focused electron beam induced processing. These objectives are accomplished via a highly collaborative and multi-disciplinary approach which brings together distinctive expertise in the areas of thin film and nanoscale synthesis and characterization, optical and electron-beam plasmon spectroscopy, and advanced theory/simulation of optical- and electron-induced localized surface plasmon resonance phenomena. The multidisciplinary program provides a unique learning experience for both undergraduate and graduate student participants. Additionally, a new multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional design project extends this experience to other undergraduate students at all three participating institutions.