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UID:69d8d21c1f427
DTSTART:20221128T140000Z
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TRANSP:OPAQUE
LOCATION:Auditorium
SUMMARY:ICFO | MONSERRAT ALVAREZ ORTIZ
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:The growth of technology and climate change have increased the 
 need for more efficient\, biodegradable and ecologically sustainable elect
 ronic devices. With this in mind\, different methods have emerged to impro
 ve the performance of organic materials. In particular\, the union of plas
 monic nanostructures with quantum emitters marked a new line of device res
 earch. The interaction between plasmons and quantum emitters led to the mo
 dification of the chemical properties of quantum emitters\, which helped i
 mprove the absorption and emission capabilities of molecules. However\, de
 spite the efforts employed\, reliable platforms to study the interaction b
 etween plasmons and molecules reproducibly have not yet been developed. Th
 is thesis aims to increase the interaction strength between plasmonic stru
 ctures and organic molecules in a reproducible fashion by varying the opti
 cal properties of metallic structures. A&nbsp\; fluorescent dye and a prot
 ein belonging to a photosynthetic bacterium were chosen as the systems to 
 study. Consequently\, the properties of the structures were tailored to ob
 tain the desired optical response that matched the molecules/protein of in
 terest. Mainly\, the plasmonic structures' material\, shape and size serve
 d to modify the resonance frequency and intensity of the near-field of the
  plasmon. In particular\, this thesis investigated the plasmon interaction
  volume's effect on achieving and increasing the coupling strength. Fabric
 ation of antennas by lithography\, thermal evaporation\, and helium ion mi
 lling allowed these properties to be modified. Nanorod dimer fabrication d
 ecreased the modal volume to less than 10 nm resolution. Characterising th
 e structures was very important since the fine-tuning of the dimers led to
  different results. Here\, darkfield confocal microscopy was used to analy
 se the plasmonic dimers' spectral response. In addition\, finite differenc
 e time domain (FDTD) simulations provided information on the near-field st
 rength in the dimer feeding space. Later\, the molecules to the nanoantenn
 as extended the study to coupled systems. Some systems showed a strong int
 eraction between the dimers and the molecules/protein\, which was identifi
 ed by the mode splitting of the scattering spectra\, the dispersion relati
 on\, and a comparison between coupling strength and individual system loss
 es.\nThesis Director: Prof Dr. Niek Van Hulst and Dr. Pawel Wozniak
DTSTAMP:20260410T103404Z
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