Luminescent thin films and nanostructures for photonics

发光纳米材料的光学性质研究是材料科学中一个快速发展的领域，在许多领域提供了巨大的突破性创新潜力，如荧光粉、新型光源、高功率激光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，它的目标是合成尺寸可控的纳米颗粒形式的发光无机材料，并了解这些材料的光学性质是如何随着其尺寸减小到只有几个原子的团簇而变化的。它还旨在研究当这些纳米粒子与能够支持局域等离子体的贵金属纳米粒子结合时，它们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，以便制造新的激光设备，如薄盘材料或有源波导。蒙顿大学L光学部是一家国际知名的研究机构，拥有世界一流的研究基础设施，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飞行时间质谱仪等诊断仪器结合使用，以合成尺寸和性能可控的纳米颗粒。我们测量了不同沉积和热处理条件下得到的材料的吸收光谱和荧光光谱、激发态寿命、能量转移上转换和激发态吸收、合作过程等团簇效应，以及荧光量子产率等。并与相同成分的块体材料进行了系统的性能比较。我们还测试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。我们的研究产生的新材料将在照明、高功率激光、可见光光源和生物等领域产生新的设备和应用，这些行业对加拿大至关重要。

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.