Exploring photochemistry when distance matters: from supramolecular systems to plasmon-enhanced optical properties.

光是地球上生命的主要能量来源，控制它使人类文明进化到今天的现代社会。今天，我们认为理所当然的许多技术，从智能手机到日常电子支付，都归功于光子学，光的科学。Photonics代表了6500亿加元的全球市场，在加拿大每年产生近46亿加元的收入。虽然智能手机似乎在每一个手中，光子为基础的技术仍然在加拿大低调。阻碍该行业的一个主要挑战是从液态溶液到固态应用的可预测性缺乏。换句话说，在理想条件下在实验室中发现的分子特性可能不会转化为光子技术，其中分子彼此非常接近。

Light is the major source of energy that powers life on earth, and controlling it enabled the evolution of human civilization to our current modern society. Today, many of the technologies we take for granted, from smartphones to routine electronic payment, exist thanks to photonics, the science of light. Photonics represents a $CAD 650 billion dollar global market, generating close to $CAD 4.6 billion dollars in annual revenue in Canada. Although smartphones seem to be in every hand, photonic-based technologies remain low profile in Canada. A major challenge retarding this industry is the lack of predictability in going from liquid solution to solid state application. In other words, the properties of molecules discovered in the laboratory under idealized conditions might not translate into photonic technologies, where molecules are in close proximity to one another.