Our research in brief
Things change at the nanoscale! New phenomena arise, making nanoscale objects behave differently than macroscale objects. We focus particularly on using different types of nanostructures to control light at the nanoscale. Application areas include sensors, energy conversion, displays, radiative cooling, camouflage, flat metaoptics, and much more. Some of our research projects utilize plasmonic excitations in conventional metals such as gold, while we are also interested in exploring more exotic materials for nanooptics and photonics applications, not least organic conducting polymers and forest-based materials like cellulose. In 2020, our group introduced conducting polymers as a new type of materials for dynamic plasmonics.
Our facilities
Our experimental facilities include a cleanroom for microfabrication and nanofabrication, which comprises tools for deposition (thermal evaporation, sputtering, electropolymerisation, vapour phase polymerisation, etc.), patterning (electron-beam lithography (Raith Voyager 100), photolithography, direct laser beam writing, etc.), reactive ion etching, and various characterization (AFM, SEM, FTIR, UV-visible spectrometer, profilometry, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, etc.). For detailed or specific characterisation of samples and devices, we have a dedicated photonics lab, which includes equipment such as microspectrophotometry with electrochemical control, solar simulator, sky simulator (for radiative cooling measurements). We also have access to a chemistry lab for more chemistry related work such as synthesis of organic compounds and to a printing electronics facility. Some more details can be found here.
Recent news stories, videos, etc.
(Banerjee et al. Cell Reports Physical Science 2023 and Liao et al. Advanced Science 2022)
(Chen et al. Advanced Materials 2021)
(Shiran Chaharsoughi et al. Advanced Functional Materials 2019)
(Shiran Chaharsoughi et al. Advanced Optical Materials 2018)
Some images were made by Conceptualized.tech and many photos were taken by Thor Balkhed.