Broadband, Quasi-Crystalline, and Low-Symmetry Plasmonics

技术：该项目在电子与光子材料计划和凝聚态物理计划的支持下，对准晶体和多尺度等离子体晶体进行了实验和理论研究。在等离子体材料，特别是纳米粒子以及使用软纳米光刻技术创建的纳米结构金属薄膜和表面的先前研究的基础上，当前的项目朝着新的方向移动，并强调宽带、非周期和低对称性的金属晶格，其性质在等离子体领域中大多是未知的，因为这些结构不容易制造，特别是不能在大面积(1平方厘米)上制造。这种结构及其测量和计算的色散特性非常重要，因为它们可以为增强光传输和其他光-表面等离子体耦合机制提供新的见解。科学问题，如增强传输，长短程等离子体相互作用，S偏振光学响应，以及瑞利反常/表面等离子体极化模式耦合。非技术：该项目致力于一个具有高度技术相关性的科学主题领域的基础研究问题。纳米光子学是一个新兴的研究领域，它将对光通信、信息存储和化学传感器产生影响。该项目将在实验和理论纳米光子学研究方面培养一支高科技劳动力。一个例子是关于纳米技术的课程：自上而下与自下而上的相遇。光学性质建模的某些方面正在适应PI也教授的普通化学课程。此外，私人投资机构开发的简单纳米技术通过网络在世界各地传播，并正在与包括几个非洲国家的教授和学生在内的国际合作伙伴进行测试。

Technical: This project, supported by the Electronic and Photonic Materials Program and the Condensed Matter Physics Program, is on experimental and theoretical investigation of quasi-crystalline and multiscale plasmonic crystals. Built on the previous research by the PIs on plasmonic materials, especially on nanoparticles as well as nanostructured metal films and surfaces created using soft nanolithography techniques, the current project moves in new directions and emphasizes broadband, aperiodic, and low-symmetry metal lattices, whose properties are mostly unknown in the plasmonics field because the structures cannot easily be fabricated, and especially not over large areas ( 1 cm2). Such structures and their measured and calculated dispersion properties are important because they can provide new insight into enhanced optical transmission and other light-surface plasmon coupling mechanisms. Scientific issues such as enhanced transmission, coupled long/short range plasmon interactions, s-polarized optical responses, and coupled Rayleigh anomaly/surface plasmon polariton modes will be studied.Non-technical: The project addresses basic research issues in a topical area of science with high technological relevance. Nanophotonics is an emerging research area that will have impacts on optical communication, information storage, and chemical sensors. The project will train a high tech work force in experimental and theoretical nanophotonics research. One example is a course on Nanopatterning: Top-down Meets Bottom-up. Some aspects of the optical property modeling are being adapted to General Chemistry courses that the PIs also teach. Moreover, the simple nanopatterning techniques developed by the PIs are disseminated worldwide through the web and are being tested with international partners, including professors and students in several Africa counties.