Sapphire doped with titanium atoms is the gain medium for our tunable laser system.
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Overview
Our lab explores optical and electronic properties that arise from dynamic processes in novel nanomaterials. At the nano scale, interactions and behaviors can become non-intuitive as quantum effects (the wave nature of the electron) play a strong role. The time scale of behaviors speeds up too because of the decreased time required to transit shorter distances for a fixed propagation velocity. The electronic and optical properties that are being discovered in this small world can offer many advantages to commercial technology – ballistic charge transport, tunability of energy levels, and strong enhancement of electric fields are just a few of the myriad effects that are being explored in a variety of semiconducting, metal, polymer, and organic structures. Understanding and controlling such processes are critical to developing commercial technologies in areas such as energy materials and computing. |
Solar energy conversion dynamicsSunlight is converted into electricity much faster than a billionth of a second. How do you find out what's really happening? By taking snapshots on an even faster timescale...
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Frequency downconversion in thin filmsNanocrystals are known to change color with size. How can carefully designed nanocrystals convert light into other colors efficiently? |
Graphene-based materialsGraphene is a single layer of carbon atoms that has remarkably high strength and conductivity. Innovations and devices constructed from this exciting nanomaterial also have unusual properties yet to be explored...
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News from the lab... to be posted.
