Plasmonics and Ultrafast NanoOptics

About

The Plasmonics and Ultrafast NanoOptics group is a multidisciplinary research group with research topics ranging from fundamental surface plasmon research, to the development of biomimetic dye sensitised solar cells. The group is located in UCD's Science Center North building, on Belfield campus, close to Dublin city center. Along with numerous other experimental and computational research groups from UCD's School of Physics, it is a member of the recently established NanoBio research initiative.

Plasmonics research carried out in the group includes: design and implementation of active plasmonic architectures, investigation of plasmonic process on ultrashort time scales,  nanostructure based control of plasmon fields, and magnetoplasmonics. Facilities for this research are housed in temperature controlled dark rooms equipped with vibration isolation optical tables, sample preparation and characterisation techniques.
For the various experiments, a variety of light sources:
           e.g. sub 20 fs laser system at 800 nm or 400 nm (KM Labs Griffin C), UV to mid-IR
           tunable pulsed laser system (Radiant Dye), and a variety of pulsed and CW
           lasers of various power and wavelength characteristics (Argon Ion, Helium Neon's,
           Nd:YAG with doubling and tripling).
and detection equipment:
           e.g. scattering scanning nearfield optical microscope, photoemission electron
          microscope (SPECs),  Autocorrelators (FROG and GRENOUILLE from SwampOptics,
          and APE Autocorrelator), and a wide range of more conventional optical detectors
          (PMTs etc).
are used in conjunction with a range of electronic source and detection devices (e.g. Lock-in amplifiers, oscilloscopes, etc).
Many of the samples for plasmonic research are prepared using Focused Ion Beam (FEI dual beam FIB) or e-beam lithography techniques, in conjunction with resistive thermal, or e-beam, evaporation of the required thin film layers.

The solar cell research is our group is based on the development and optimisation of dye sensitised solar cells. The group is a member of a large Irish based SFI funded research cluster called the Solar Energy Cluster. The aim of this cluster is to develop new materials and devices that could mimic the steps involved in natural photosynthesis, the process by which green plants capture energy from the sun. Traditional solar panels (photovoltaics) are too costly for widespread deployment. The cluster is broken into 4 strands, with researchers aiming to develop inexpensive photovoltaics which will convert sunlight into power (Strand 1) which can be harnessed by catalysis to produce hydrogen via water-splitting (Strand 2), and carbon capture and fixation (Strand 3). The fourth complementary strand will be the development of commercially viable solar energy conversion modules.

In conjunction with these two main research strands, other projects in the field of nano-optics and Raman spectroscopy include:
          Development of optical tweezers for metallic nanoparticle trapping.
          Experimental and computational investigation of the solvation of carbon nanotubes.
          Flourescence studies of carbon nanotubes.
          Tip Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy.

To find out more about our current research activities, please visit our research page.


Funding

The research carried out by the group is currently funded or supported by:

Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)
Enterprise Ireland (EI)
UCD Seed Fund
Tyndall National Access Program (NAP)
IRCSET Research Scolorship
UCD Ad Astra Research Scholorship