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THE SCHOOL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Under the provisions of the regulations for the degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
on Monday, April 15, 2019
3:00 PM
in MoSE 1126
will be held the
DISSERTATION DEFENSE
for
Shuaidi Zhang
"Plasmonic Hybrid Nanoconstructs for Subwavelength Manipulation of Optical Properties"
Committee Members:
Prof. Vladimir V. Tsukruk, Advisor, MSE
Prof. Zhiqun Lin, MSE
Prof. Wenshan Cai, ECE/MSE
Prof. Younan Xia, BME, CHEM/ChBE
Prof. Ali Adibi, ECE
Abstract:
Plasmonic nanostructures give rise to intriguing optical phenomena such as deep-subwavelength light focusing, precisely tunable scattering/absorption, and super-linearity enhancement. These properties could be harnessed by combining plasmonic components with functional organics into plasmonic hybrid nanoconstructs for practical applications, such as molecular sensing, advanced displays, and photonic logic processing. However, to fully realize the potential of these plasmonic hybrid nanoconstructs, critical questions on fundamental aspects of organic-inorganic assembly and their coupling behavior need to be addressed. This work seeks understand some of these aspects and fill knowledge gaps regarding the efficient microfabrication and utilization of hybrid plasmonic nanoconstructs. Specifically, an advanced nanoscale characterization method based on scanning probe microscopy and secondary ion mass-spectrometry is developed to monitor the morphological and compositional changes on the surface of the exact same plasmonic nanocrystal as ligand exchange reaction proceeds, leading to new discoveries on reaction dynamics. Detailed characterization of nanoparticle distribution in organic matrices and corresponding electrodynamic modeling have also been combined to aid the rational design of a cellulose nanofiber-gold nanorod hybrid surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy based molecular sensing platform that outperforms traditional design by two orders of magnitude. New discoveries have also been made regarding the optical response of electrochromic polymer infused plasmonic nanohole arrays upon complex permittivity modulation: the forward and backward scattering shows drastically different response whose origin is explained by advanced electrodynamic simulation. Finally, using high resolution hyperspectral mapping and high-fidelity sub-nm resolution electrodynamic simulation, we furthered the understanding of coupling between plasmonic nanocrystals and photonic nanocavities and proposed a new method that uses the near-field coupling between plasmonic nanoparticle antennas to regulate the optical output of a plasmonic-photonic hybrid cavity, which could lead to extremely compact designs for nanolasers.
