Links
Nanoscience at UCF
The following links point to research groups at UCF active in the general area of nanoscience. Many of these faculty members also work with or at the UCF Nanoscience Technology Center.
Nano at CREOL
- Dennis Deppe – MBE growth of quantum dots for applications in lasers
- Aristide Dogariu – near field optics and light scattering in random media
- Pieter Kik – near-field optics, nanophotonics, and plasmon optics
- Winston Schoenfeld – self-assembled nanostructures and nanophotonic devices
Nano at the Chemistry department
- Karin Chumbimuni-Torres – chemical sensors with nanoparticle labels
- Swadeshmukul Santra – nanostructures for crop protection and medicine
- Andre Gesquiere – nanoscale Materials for Energy Conversion and Bio-imaging
- Eloy Hernandez – nonlinear optical properties of nanostructured materials
- Qun ‘Treen’ Huo – synthesis, analysis, and applications of nanoparticle materials
- Stephen Kuebler – nanofabrication through chemical methods, nanophotonics
- Artëm E. Masunov – computational molecular and nanomaterials, theoretical chemistry and molecular physics
- Lei Zhai – nanoparticle-carbon nanotube composites
- Shengli Zou – metal nanoparticle and quantum dot interactions
Nano at the Physics department
- Enrique del Barco – nanoscale quantum physics, molecular magnets
- Saiful Khondaker – electron transport properties of nanoscale materials
- Michael Leuenberger – theory; quantum optics, quantum cryptography, spintronics, opto-spintronics
- Eduardo Mucciolo – theoretical studies of electronic properties of nanostructures and low-dimensional systems
- Robert Peale – Mid-infrared plasmonics
- Talat Rahman – Nanoscale solid state physics, nanocatalysis
Nano at MMAE
- Joe Cho (MMAE)
nanofabrication and BioMEMS - Kevin Coffey (AMPAC)
magnetic nanoparticles and the materials science of nanostructured materials - Jiyu Fang (MMAE)
soft nanomaterials based on self-assembly of biological building blocks - Sudipta Seal (AMPAC)
synthesis, analysis, and applications of nanoparticles
Semiconductor nanophotonics
The basis of this branch of research is a phenomenon known as quantum confinement, related to the wave-like nature of matter. Thanks to quantum confinement we can tune the optical properties of semiconductors by tailoring their size and shape at the nanoscale. For example, silicon nanoparticles with a diameter of a few nanometers can emit light in the visible range, despite the fact that the bandgap of bulk silicon lies at 1.1 eV corresponding to an emission wavelength in the near-infrared. In addition to the dramatic effects on the optical properties of the nanoparticles, quantum confinement also allows for the tuning of the interaction between semiconductors and optical dopants such as the rare-earth ions. An example of these effects can be found in this article.
