NIRT: Plasmonic Nanophotonics and Optoelectronics

本提案是对NSF 01-157 NIRT类纳米科学与工程倡议的响应。本项目旨在开发新型金属介电纳米结构材料及其在光子学、光谱学和光电子学中的应用。金属纳米结构能够支持各种等离子体激元模式，从而导致高局域场，从而显著增强光学响应。这种等离子体纳米结构就像纳米天线一样，在小的纳米范围内积累和建立电磁能量。这种能量集中导致的光学截面的显著增强为金属纳米结构的大量应用开辟了新的途径。本项目将研究一些新现象及其在光子学和光电子学中的应用。这些包括基于金属纳米线的左手材料中的负折射，使用金属纳米结构的光子带隙材料，等离子体增强的非线性光电探测器，无序诱导的等离子体局域化和用于检测分子的分形传感器，光门光学发射器，光子纳米电路和纳米芯片。这项跨学科的研究汇集了等离子体纳米材料物理学(沙拉耶夫教授)、飞秒脉冲整形光谱学和超快光子学(韦纳教授)以及等离子体纳米材料制备(魏教授)和光电子学(梅洛赫教授)的专家。在与普渡大学伯克纳米技术中心和传感科学和技术中心的协同活动的支持下，等离子体纳米材料方面的成功计划将加快多学科纳米光子学计划的发展。拟议的研究将把新兴光子学和纳米技术领域的尖端研究与一流的教育和培训结合起来，并注入其中。

This proposal was received in response to Nanoscale Science and Engineering initiative, NSF 01-157, category NIRT. This project is aimed at developing new classes of metal-dielectric nanostructured materials and their applications in photonics, spectroscopy and optoelectronics. Metal nanostructures are capable of supporting various plasmon modes, which can result in high local fields and thus in dramatic enhancement of optical responses. Such plasmonic nanostructures act like nanoantennas accumulating and building up the electromagnetic energy in small nanometer scale areas. The dramatic enhancement of optical cross-sections resulting from such energy concentration opens new avenues for numerous applications of metal nanostructures. A number of new phenomena and their applications in photonics and optoelectronics will be studied in this project. Those include negative refraction in left-handed materials based on metal nanowires, photonic band-gap materials using metal nanostructures, plasmon-enhanced nonlinear photodetectors, disorder-induced localization of plasmons and fractal sensors for detecting molecules, light-gated optical transmitters, photonic nano-circuits and nano-chips. This interdisciplinary research brings together experts in the physics of plasmonic nanomaterials (Prof. Shalaev), femtosecond pulse-shaping spectroscopy and ultafast photonics (Prof. Weiner), and fabrication of plasmonic (Prof. Wei) and optoelectronic (Prof. Melloch) nanomaterials. A successful program in plasmonic nanomaterials, supported by synergistic activities with the Birck Nanotechnology Center and Center for Sensing Science and Technology at Purdue, will accelerate the development of a multidisciplinary Nano-photonics Program. The proposed research will integrate and infuse cutting-edge research in the emerging areas of photonics and nanotechnology with top-flight education and training.