Objectives

A main focus of this project is to determine the parameters governing the transfers of energy between two fluorescent entities in plasmonic NPs. The concrete objectives of the projects are:

(1) to create core-shell AuNPs of increasing complexity in term of shape and compositions in order to isolate the various energy transfers to describe by systematic measurements the energy transfers: (a) between the molecule (donor) and the Au core (acceptor) considering single fluorescent molecule or luminescent quantum dots (QDs) or (b) between two different species (one fluorescent molecule and one quantum dots or both are fluorescent molecules) in the presence or absence of local plasmon resonance electromagnetic field;

(2) to modulate the composition and morphology of the core-shell NPs according to these results to design and fabricate hybrid NP with a desired optical response. In particular, we will focus on the improving the brightness and photo-stability of NPs for applications in the field of nanosensors and high resolution fluorescence microscopy.