Education

We have projects open all year round. Generally, high school and undergraduate students' projects are aligning with current research projects running in the lab. However, if students have their own ideas and would to give them a try we always welcome.

Metamaterials meet nanomaterials

Metamaterials are a class of material engineered to have exotic properties. Most generally, metamaterials are made to have unique ways of interacting with light such as bending, absorbing, reflecting or transmitting light in specific designed manners. Some analogues of metamaterials are found in nature such as eyes of some lobsters or wings of butterflies.

Nanomaterials, on the other hand, can be understood as traditional materials but appear at nanoscale where they exhibit new interesting properties that cannot be found in their macroscopic counterparts. Examples of novel nanomaterials include semiconductor quantum dots, semiconductor nanowires (rods), molecules and recently discovered 2D layered dichalcogenides, etc... By integrating nanomaterials with metamaterials many interesting physical phenomena occur. For instance, when integrate semiconductor quantum dots or molecules (nanomaterials) with plasmonic nanocavities (metamaterials), the photon emission rate of the quantum dots or molecules is enhanced by nearly a 1000-fold. This happens because of the interaction between the nanomaterials with light that is being stored in the metamaterials. Our group experimentally investigates the light-matter interaction between nanomaterials and single plasmonic and photonic nanostructures. Students will be involved in: nano-fabrication, micro-photoluminescence, single particle spectroscopy, time-correlated single photon spectroscopy. This research direction is aligning perfectly with current trends of nanophotonics, which promise a new generation of efficient light absorbing and emitting devices ranging from photon detection/emission, bio-sensing, quantum information and photovoltaic applications.

High school students seeing single quantum dots emitting light for the first time:

Students examine butterfly wings, via spectroscopic techniques, to understand photonic crystals:

Tuning the light reflection from a butterfly wing using alcohol:

Learning quantum optics with butterflies - controlling the CdSe semiconductor quantum dot (QD) spontaneous emission rate using biological photonic crystals:

©Hoang.Lab.UofM 2017