Luminescent thin films and nanostructures for photonics

发光纳米材料的光学特性研究是材料科学中一个快速发展的领域，为许多领域的突破性创新提供了丰富的潜力，例如荧光粉，新型照明光源，高功率激光器以及最近的发光生物测定。我的研究计划包括两个研究主题。首先，它旨在以可控尺寸的纳米颗粒的形式合成发光无机材料，并了解这些材料的光学性质如何随着它们的尺寸缩小到只有几个原子的簇而变化。它还旨在研究当这些纳米粒子与可以支持局部等离子激元的贵金属纳米粒子耦合时，这些纳米粒子的发光特性是如何变化的。我的第二个研究主题是生产透明薄膜激光材料，以生产新型激光器件，如薄盘材料或有源波导。蒙克顿大学的研究小组（GCMP）是一个国际公认的研究小组，拥有世界级的研究基础设施，致力于薄膜和纳米材料的合成。我和我的学生将这些技术与诊断仪器（如飞行时间质谱）相结合，合成具有可控尺寸和性能的纳米颗粒。我们测量了在不同沉积和退火条件下获得的材料的吸收光谱和荧光光谱、激发寿命、能量转移上转换和激发态吸收、协同过程和其他聚类效应、荧光量子产率等。将所得材料的性能与类似成分的块状材料进行了系统的比较。我们还确定了用于薄盘激光器和波导激光器的透明薄膜材料的性能，以确定和提高输出功率的可扩展性。从我们的研究中产生的新材料将在照明、高功率激光、可见光源和生物领域产生新的设备和应用，这些都是对加拿大至关重要的行业。

The study of optical properties of luminescent nano-materials is a rapidly evolving area in material science, offering a rich potential for breakthrough innovations in many fields, such as phosphors, novel lighting sources, high-power lasers and, more recently, luminescent bioassays. My research program consists of two research themes. First, it aims to synthesize luminescent inorganic materials in the form of nanoparticles of controllable size and to understand how the optical properties of these materials change as their size is reduced down to clusters of just a few atoms. It also aims to examine how the luminescence properties of these nanoparticles change when they are coupled with noble metal nanoparticles that can support localized plasmons. My second research theme consists in producing transparent thin-film laser materials in order to produce novel laser devices such as thin-disk materials or active waveguides. The Groupe de recherche sur les couches minces et la photonique de l'Université de Moncton (GCMP) is an internationally recognized research group and holds a world class research infrastructure dedicated to the synthesis of thin films and nanomaterials. My students and I use these techniques in combination with diagnostic instruments, such as time-of-flight mass spectrometry, to synthesize nanoparticles with controllable size and properties. We measure absorption and fluorescence spectra, the excited lifetimes, energy transfer upconversion and excited state absorption, cooperative processes and other clustering effects, the fluorescent quantum yield, etc, in the materials we obtained after various deposition and annealing conditions. The properties of the obtained materials are systematically compared with bulk materials of similar composition. We also determine the performance of transparent thin-film materials for thin-disk laser and waveguide laser, in order to determine and improve the scalability of the output power. The novel materials arising from our research will produce new devices and applications in the fields of lighting, high-power lasers, visible light sources, and biology, which are industries of key importance to Canada.