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Molecular Photonic Breadboards

分子光子面包板

基本信息

批准号：
EP/T012455/1
负责人：
Graham Leggett
金额：
$ 924.47万
依托单位：
University of Sheffield
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2020 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FT012455%2F1
关键词：
Molecular Photonic Breadboards

项目摘要

New manufacturing methods are required if we are to live sustainably on the earth. In the electronics industry there is enormous interest in the possibility of manufacturing devices using organic materials: they can be manufactured sustainably from earth-abundant resources at energy costs that are typically significantly less than those associated with the production of equivalent inorganic materials. Electronic devices based on organic components are now readily available in the high street. For example, organic light-emitting diodes are used to produce the displays used in some high-end TV sets and in smartphones (e.g. iPhone X). However, a fundamental problem prevents the realisation of the full potential of organic materials in electronic devices. When light is absorbed by molecular semiconductors, it causes the creation of excitons - pairs of opposite charges - that carry excitation through the device. However, the excitons in organic materials recombine and cancel themselves out extremely rapidly - they can only move short distances through the material. This fundamental obstacle limits the application of organic materials in consumer electronics and also in many other areas of technology - in quantum communications, photocatalysis and sensor technologies.We propose an entirely new approach to solving this problem that is based on combining molecular designs inspired by photosynthetic mechanisms with nanostructured materials to produce surprising and intriguing quantum optical effects that mix the properties of light and matter.On breadboards, threaded mounts hold optical components relative to one another so that rays of light can be directed through an optical system. This proposal also aims to design breadboards, but of a very different kind. The smallest components will be single chromophores (light absorbing molecules), held at fixed arrangements in space by minimal building blocks called antenna complexes, whose structures are inspired by those of proteins involved in photosynthesis. Antenna complexes are designed and made from scratch using synthetic biology and chemistry so that transfer of energy can be controlled by programming the antenna structure. Instead of using threaded mounts, we will organise these components by attachment to reactive chemical groups formed on solid surfaces by nanolithography. In these excitonic films, we will develop design rules for efficient long-range transport.In conventional breadboards, light travels in straight lines between components. However, we will use the phenomenon of strong light-matter coupling to achieve entirely different types of energy transfer. In strong coupling, a localised plasmon resonance (an light mode confined to the surface of a nanoparticle) is hybridised with molecular excitons to create new states called plexcitons that combine the properties of light and matter. We will create plexcitonic complexes, in each of which an array of as many as a thousand chromophores is strongly coupled to a plasmon mode. In these plexcitonic complexes, the coupling is collective - all the chromophores couple to the plasmon simultaneously, and so the rules of energy transfer are completely re-written. Energy is no longer transferred via a series of linear hopping steps (as it is in organic semiconductors), but is delocalised instantaneously across the entire structure - many orders of magnitude further than is possible in conventional organic semiconductors. By designing these plexcitonic complexes from scratch we aim to create entirely new properties. The resulting materials are fully programmable from the scale of single chromophores to macroscopic structures.By combining biologically-inspired design with strong light-matter coupling we will create many new kinds of functional structures, including new medical sensors, 'plexcitonic circuits', and quantum optical films suitable for many applications, using low-cost, environmentally benign methods.

如果我们要在地球上可持续地生存，就需要新的制造方法。在电子行业，人们对使用有机材料制造设备的可能性非常感兴趣：它们可以从地球上丰富的资源中可持续地制造出来，能源成本通常比生产同等无机材料的成本低得多。基于有机元件的电子设备现在在商业街上随处可见。例如，有机发光二极管被用来生产用于一些高端电视机和智能手机(如iPhone X)的显示器。然而，一个根本的问题阻碍了有机材料在电子设备中的全部潜力的实现。当光被分子半导体吸收时，它会产生激子--一对相反的电荷--通过设备进行激发。然而，有机材料中的激子重新组合并以极快的速度抵消-它们只能在材料中短距离移动。这一根本性的障碍限制了有机材料在消费电子产品以及许多其他技术领域的应用--量子通信、光催化和传感器技术。我们提出了一种全新的解决方法，该方法基于光合作用机制启发的分子设计与纳米结构材料相结合，产生令人惊讶和有趣的量子光学效果，将光和物质的特性结合在一起。在面包板上，螺纹座固定光学元件彼此相对，以便光线可以通过光学系统引导。这项提案也旨在设计面包板，但却是一种非常不同的东西。最小的组成部分将是单个发色团(光吸收分子)，由被称为天线复合体的最小构件在空间中固定排列，其结构的灵感来自参与光合作用的蛋白质的结构。天线复合体是利用合成生物学和化学从头开始设计和制造的，因此可以通过对天线结构进行编程来控制能量的传递。我们将通过纳米光刻技术在固体表面形成活性化学基团来组织这些组件，而不是使用螺纹座。在这些激子薄膜中，我们将制定有效的长距离传输的设计规则。在传统的电路板中，光在组件之间沿直线传播。然而，我们将利用光-物质强烈耦合的现象来实现完全不同类型的能量转移。在强耦合中，局域等离子体共振(一种局限于纳米颗粒表面的光模式)与分子激子杂交，产生一种新的状态，称为plexiton，它结合了光和物质的性质。我们将创建激子复合体，在每个复合体中，多达一千个生色团的阵列与等离子激元模式强烈耦合。在这些激子复合体中，耦合是集体的--所有生色团同时耦合到等离子激子，因此能量转移规则被完全改写。能量不再通过一系列线性跳跃步骤(就像在有机半导体中那样)转移，而是瞬间在整个结构中离域--比传统有机半导体可能要远许多个数量级。通过从头开始设计这些激子复合体，我们的目标是创造出全新的性质。通过将生物启发的设计与强烈的光-物质耦合相结合，我们将创造许多新型的功能结构，包括新型医疗传感器、‘激子电路’和适用于许多应用的量子光学薄膜，使用低成本、环境友好的方法。