QMHP: Tunable Plasmon Nanooptics with Carbon Nanotubes

本研究的目的是探索如何使用单个纳米管的低能量集体等离子体激元激发来定制周期性排列的、密集堆积的、平行的碳纳米管阵列的光学性质。严格的量子电动力学方法，由PI早期开发的单个纳米管，将被使用。该方法从单管能带结构计算开始，并允许一个超越理想的导电圆柱和有效介质的限制性近似以前采用的other.INTELLECTUAL MERIT混合表面状态与体周期性介电性能带来了密集，周期性排列的碳纳米管阵列到微波到可见光的高要求的宽带光谱范围，这可以通过调整管间的分离，管直径和手性，并通过改变介电主体材料。清楚地理解周期性排列的碳纳米管阵列中的低能集体电子激发的性质以及各个组成纳米管如何彼此通信以及它对阵列的集体性质的影响，是实现各种实际应用的自然先决条件，这些实际应用包括增强的电磁吸收，环境电磁场的转换和整流到纳米生物传感器和先进的等离子体超材料的发展。更广泛的影响这项研究将导致先进的电磁Meta材料，用于未来能源相关应用的材料工程。NCCU是美国第一所国家支持的非裔美国人公立文理学院，增加少数族裔学生对这项令人兴奋的尖端纳米技术研究的接触，将导致少数族裔更多地参与科学学科的研究生学习和科学事业。一般。

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND APPROACHESThe objective of this research is to explore how one can use low-energy collective plasmon excitations of individual nanotubes to tailor the optical properties of periodically aligned, densely packed, parallel arrays of carbon nanotubes. The rigorous quantum electrodynamics approach, developed earlier by the PI for individual nanotubes, will be used. The approach starts with single-tube band-structure calculations and allows one to go beyond the ideally-conducting-cylinder and effective-medium restrictive approximations employed previously by others.INTELLECTUAL MERITMixing surface states with bulk-periodic dielectric properties brings dense, periodically aligned carbon nanotube arrays into the highly demanded broad-band spectral range of microwave to visible, which can be tuned by adjusting inter-tube separation, tube diameter and chirality, and by varying dielectric host material. Clear understanding of the properties of low-energy collective electronic excitations in periodically aligned carbon nanotube arrays and how individual constituent nanotubes communicate with one another and what it does to the collective properties of the array, is a natural prerequisite for the realization of a variety of practical applications ranging from the enhanced electromagnetic absorption, conversion and rectification of ambient electromagnetic fields to nano-biosensorics and advanced plasmonic metamaterials development.BROADER IMPACTThis research will result in novel optoelectronic device concepts for advanced electromagnetic meta-materials engineering for use in future energy related applications. Increased exposure of under-represented minority students from NCCU, nation's first state-supported public liberal arts college for African Americans, to this exciting cutting-edge nanotechnology research will lead to increased minority participation in graduate studies in scientific disciplines and in scientific careers in general.