NANO-OPTICS (OPT463 / PHY 431)
16 December 2009
This is copyrighted material. Please do not distribute. The notes are unedited chapters from the textbook
L. Novotny and B. Hecht, Principles of Nano-Optics, Cambridge (2006).
Lecture Notes
Appendices
Additional Reading
2009 PROJECTS AND LITERATURE
2. Patterning of Quantum Dots Based on Nanosphere Lithography
(Nanosphere lithography uses monolayers (mostly hexagonal stacking) of micro- or nanospheres deposited on a flat surface as a projection pattern for subsequent vapor deposition of materials. For a single monolayer and hexagonal packing the projection patterns consist of triangular shapes formed by the voids in between of the touching spheres. Sample heating will be explored to reduce the size of the features while maintaing their separation. At elevated temeratures the spheres melt, which can be explored to reduce the size of the voids between spheres. Colloidal quantum dots will be deposited in the voids for subsequent photon antibunching experiments (c.f. Project #3).)
Students: Yi-Ming Lai, Zachary Lapin, Dazhong Wu
Coaches: Palash Bharadwaj (palash@pas) and Brad Deutsch (deutsch@optics)
- Literature to Project 2 (a)
- Literature to Project 2 (b)
- Previous Student Report
Final Project Report
3. Photon Anti-Bunching from Single Quantum Dots
(Photon anti-bunching is a true manifestation of the quantum nature of light. It is a statistical measure for the arrival times of photons. In essence, a single emitter (quantum dot) can only emit a single photon at once and hence the probability of the time-separation T between two photons is zero for T=0. In this project regual patterns of single quantum dots are fabricated by nanosphere lithography (c.f. Project 2). The photon statistics from single quantum dots will be measured using a single photon detector in combination with fast data acquisition software. Of particular interest is the coupling of metal islands to single quantum dots and the associated modification of the photon arrival time distribution. )
Students: Bradford Loesch, Tanya Malhotra, Gerardo Viza
Coaches: Ryan Beams (beams@optics) and Palash Bharadwaj (palash@pas)
- Literature to Project 3 (a)
- Literature to Project 3 (b)
- Previous Student Report
Final Project Report
4. Statistics of Trapping Times in Optical Tweezers
(Optical tweezers make use of the gradient forces acting on polarizable particles in an inhomogeneous electric field, such as a focused laser beam. The trapping efficiency depends on how strongly the laser is focused, on its intensity, and on the polarizability of the particle to be trapped. Because of Brownian motion there is no stable trapping in liquids.
It is just a question of time until a sufficiently powerful kick from a solution molecule (Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution) leads to the escape of the trapped particle. In this project a laser tweezer will be used to trap micron-sized particles in a solution and the trapping dynamics will be monitored with a CCD. A histogram of individual trapping times will be established, as well as the statistics of random Brownian motion in the trap. This data will be used in theoretical models to derive the trap stiffness and the trap depth.)
Students: Steven Person, John Serafini, Yuhong Yao, Yuzhe Xiao
Coaches: Anirban Mitra (anirban@pas), Brad Deutsch (deutsch@optics)
- Literature to Project 4(a)
- Previous Student Report
- Previous Student Report
Final Project Report
5. Foerster Energy Transfer Measured on Single Proteins
(Measurements of the energy transfer between a pair of dye molecules is used to determine the distance between the two molecules. Usually, one of the molecules (donor) is excited by an external laser beam. In the absence of the other molecule (acceptor) fluorescence emission occurs only from the donor, but when the acceptor molecule is close to the donor there is a chance of energy transfer and fluorescence will also be emitted from the acceptor. By measuring the ratio of acceptor to donor fluorescence energy transfer efficiency) it is possible to calculate the donor-acceptor separation distance. In this project donor and acceptor molecules will be attached to specific aminoacids of single proteins and measurements of the energy transfer efficiency will be used to derive the distance between the two aminoacids.)
Students: Kit Pancy, Timothy Baran
Coaches: John Lesoine (lesoine@optics), Prahnesh (p_akshayalingam@urmc), Christiane Hoeppener(hoeppene@optics)
- Literature to Project 5(a)
- Literature to Project 5(b)
Final Project Report