The Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship (SCHiMAT) significantly further enhanced my career in high-level research. The main research achievements and results during this period are shown as following and in :
1. Hierarchical plasmonic nanostructure for field enhancement and molecule detection. By exploiting the equivalence of light propagation between spatio-temporal geometries and materials with variation of refractive index, we designed and characterised a SERS device based on warped spaces that strongly enhance broadband electromagnetic energy over a relatively large spectral region. These results have been published in:
[1] Nature Communications, 2018, 9, 5428.
[2] Chinese Journal of Chemical Physics, 2019, Just Accepted.
I further developed a novel super-hydrophobic hierarchical plasmonic nanostructure for molecule delivery and detection by combining super-hydrophobic artificial surfaces and nanoplasmonic structures, that few molecules can be localized and detected even at attomolar (1e-18 M) concentration. Moreover, the detection can be combined with fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy, such that the chemical signature of the molecules can be clearly determined. (Paper in preparation)
2. Metallic nanoparticle array based gas sensors. We developed a novel H2 sensor based on closely spaced metallic Pd nanoparticle arrays. We further demonstrated a feasible approach to fabricate gas sensors with selectivity by coating a polymeric membrane (PMMA) for gas separation. And we also have realized an optically transparent and flexible H2 sensor by depositing a Pd nanoparticle array onto a PET substrate. The H2 responsiveness showed no performance degradation after 500 bending cycles, showing good flexibility, robust electromechanical properties, and stable H2-sensing behavior. In addition, the effect of strain on the H2-sensing behaviors was also investigated. These results have been published in:
[3] ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2017, 09, 27193-27201.
[4] Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 2018, 272, 161-169.
[5] ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2018, 4, 5406-5409.
3. Plasmonic nanostructures for broadband light absorption and energy harvesting. We achieved to manipulate a disordered plasmonic system, realising the transition from a broadband absorption to tunable reflection through a deterministic control of the coupling to an external cavity. Not limited to the significance in the physics, the disordered plasmonic system provides a novel platform for various practical application including structural colour patterning and solar energy harvesting. These results have been submitted to
[6] Nature Communications (2019, under review)
Instead of a direct mathematical abstract, we design a fractal structure from the outline of a leaf and apply it for solar energy harvesting. Combined with the feature of self-similarity, the bio-inspired fractal geometry can turn an 10 nm thick gold to an effective absorber, especially at the near infrared region containing a large amount of solar energy. These results have been published in:
[7] Nanophotonics, 2019, DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2019-0104(si apre in una nuova finestra).
4. Plamonic nanostructure for photocatalysis. we presented a design of TiO2 nanorod arrays decorated with Au, Ag, Ru, Pd, Pt, TiN and Si nanoclusters directly synthesized through successive gas-phase cluster beam deposition. The present design of cluster-decoration on the TiO2 nanorods shows much higher visible and ultraviolet light absorption response, which leads to remarkably enhanced photocatalytic activities on both the dye degradation and solar water splitting performance. (Papers in preparation)
