Objective
This project will fabricate and study devices known as spasers, which are the plasmonic analog of conventional lasers. In general, plasmonic devices exploit electromagnetic waves known as surface plasmon polaritons (herein shortened to surface plasmons) that propagate at the surface of a metal. Because these waves allow light to be concentrated in nanometer-scale volumes (hot spots), they can lead to enhanced light-matter interactions. Consequently, plasmonic structures have been studied for various photonic applications. However, because surface plasmons dissipate energy in the metal, intrinsic losses can severely limit light-matter interactions and the performance of plasmonic devices. Therefore, simple routes to counteract losses by adding a gain material to rejuvenate the surface plasmons have been sought. Moreover, by adding sufficient optical gain to a plasmonic resonator, a spaser can be created. This can lead to an extremely versatile nanoscale source of surface plasmons, photons, and/or intense electromagnetic fields. Therefore, spasers can enable fundamental studies on the limits of nanoscale optics as well as various applications. Recently, the very first spasers have appeared, leading to many open questions. To help address these, the PI will perform fundamental studies on a broad class of plasmonic devices that incorporate gain. The proposed research will take advantage of his expertise in two areas: (a) highly fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals (colloidal quantum dots) for the gain material and (b) the fabrication of high-quality low-loss patterned metallic films. By combining these, an ideal route to spasers will be pursued. The project will develop designs and fabrication processes to create quantum-dot-decorated plasmonic resonators, and then investigate their gain, amplification, and spasing behavior. Another objective is to develop new approaches to place individual quantum dots at plasmonic hot spots and study their properties.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences physical sciences electromagnetism and electronics electromagnetism
- engineering and technology nanotechnology nano-materials nanocrystals
- natural sciences physical sciences electromagnetism and electronics semiconductivity
- natural sciences physical sciences optics laser physics
- natural sciences physical sciences theoretical physics particle physics photons
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
ERC-2013-ADG
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Host institution
8092 Zuerich
Switzerland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.