OP: Collaborative Research: Nanoscale Synthesis, Characterization and Modeling of Rationally Designed Plasmonic Materials and Architectures

非技术描述：这个合作和跨学科的项目将实验者和理论家聚集在一起，探索先进的光学材料和设备。这是通过使用新的材料加工方法、先进的表征技术和最先进的理论/计算模型来实现的。该材料和器件具有实际应用，如改进的太阳能转换，化学传感器，以及更快的计算以及更高的数据存储容量。该项目探索新的材料组合和建筑，以优化不同频率的光的利用和操纵方式。先进的材料加工方法被开发出来，以产生这些光学材料的复杂的二维和三维排列。该项目的一个目标是培养研究生和本科生在协作和跨学科的环境中发挥作用。为了实现这一目标，研究生与合作机构密切合作，这些机构交叉了几个研究领域：材料合成(材料科学和工程)、材料表征(化学)和理论/模拟(化学和应用数学)。本科生受到一个新的多机构和跨学科设计项目的发展的影响。技术描述：本活动的主要目标是研究新的等离子体材料和结构，用于先进的光学和超材料概念，在可见光和近红外范围内具有广泛的光谱可调性。这一目标是通过执行三个总体目标实现的。第一个目标是系统地研究Au-Al、Ag-Al和Au-Ag-Al三元合金的合成、表征和理论/模型，目的是将材料的纳米结构与基本光学性质和全等离子体光谱相关联。第二个目标是合理地设计、合成和表征创新的2D等离子体纳米结构，包括多材料二聚体/低聚物系统、诱导不对称介电耦合的模板衬底以及用于突破小尺寸/窄间隙极限的先进的光刻/聚焦离子束纳米加工。第三个目标是了解通过聚焦电子束诱导工艺合成的新型3D等离子体纳米结构的远场和近场光学性质。这些目标是通过高度协作和多学科的方法实现的，该方法汇集了薄膜和纳米级合成和表征、光学和电子束等离子体光谱以及光学和电子诱导的局部表面等离子体共振现象的先进理论/模拟领域的独特专业知识。这个多学科项目为本科生和研究生学员提供了独特的学习体验。此外，一个新的多学科和多机构设计项目将这种体验扩展到所有三个参与机构的其他本科生。

Nontechnical Description: This collaborative and interdisciplinary project brings together both experimentalists and theorists to explore advanced optical materials and devices. This is accomplished using new materials processing methods, advanced characterization techniques, and state-of-the-art theoretical/computational models. The materials and devices have practical applications such as improved solar energy conversion, chemical sensors, and faster as well as higher data storage capacity for computing. The project explores new material combinations and architectures to optimize the way different frequencies of light can be harnessed and manipulated. Advanced materials processing methods are developed to create complex two-dimensional and three-dimensional arrangements of these optical materials. One goal of the project is to train both graduate and undergraduate students to function in a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment. To accomplish this, the graduate students work closely with the collaborating institutions which cross-cut several research areas: materials synthesis (materials science and engineering), materials characterization (chemistry), and theory/simulation (chemistry and applied mathematics). Undergraduate students are impacted by the development of a new multi-institutional and interdisciplinary design project. Technical Description: The overarching goal of this activity is to study new plasmonic materials and architectures for advanced optical and metamaterial concepts with a broad spectral tunability across the visible and near-IR. This goal is realized via the execution of three overarching objectives. The first objective comprises a systematic study of the synthesis, characterization, and theory/modeling of Au-Al, Ag-Al binary, and Au-Ag-Al ternary alloys with the goal of correlating the materials nanostructure to the fundamental optical properties and full plasmonic spectrum. The second objective aims to rationally design, synthesize, and characterize innovative 2D plasmonic nanoarchitectures that incorporate multi-material dimer/oligomer systems, templated substrates that induce asymmetric dielectric coupling, and advanced lithographic/focused ion beam nanomachining for pushing the limits of small size/narrow gaps. The third objective seeks understanding of the far- and near-field optical properties of new 3D plasmonic nanoarchitectures synthesized via focused electron beam induced processing. These objectives are accomplished via a highly collaborative and multi-disciplinary approach which brings together distinctive expertise in the areas of thin film and nanoscale synthesis and characterization, optical and electron-beam plasmon spectroscopy, and advanced theory/simulation of optical- and electron-induced localized surface plasmon resonance phenomena. The multidisciplinary program provides a unique learning experience for both undergraduate and graduate student participants. Additionally, a new multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional design project extends this experience to other undergraduate students at all three participating institutions.