Designing the Nanoworld: Nanostructure, Nanodevices, and Nanooptics

Nanoscale theory of the electronic, optical and mechanical properties of ultrasmall structures, devices and their dynamical operation and the nanooptics of these systems is being developed to exploit these structures in sensors, photovoltaics, quantum science and metrology.

Developing and exploiting precision metrology for quantum and nanotechnologies requires nanoscale modeling of ultrasmall structures, devices, their dynamical operation, and their response to probes. Key challenges of understanding physics at the quantum/classical interface and measurement at the quantum limit must be addressed. Atomic-scale simulations of the electronic and optical properties of complex nanosystems are being carried out. These systems include nanocrystals, self-assembled quantum dots, nanodot arrays and solids, and nanohybrids. These simulations provide benchmarks for precise experimental tests of the atomic-scale sensitivity of nanosystems. The work is providing the foundation needed to build design tools for engineering nanolasers, detectors, biomarkers and sensors, quantum devices, and nanomaterials. Nanoscale simulations of optical fields near nanosystems are also being carried out. Results are being used to design nanoprobes and nanocavities for use in precision nanooptics metrology and to model the transport of excitations in quantum devices.

Key theoretical activities:

*Atomistic tight-binding simulations of semiconductor nanocrystals for use in nanosensing and tagging. Extension to ab initio modeling,

*Reengineering the quantum optics of quantum dots by use of applied strain,

*Understanding the electronic, optical and transport character of dynamical dots formed with surface acoustical waves,

*Electronic and optical response of complex quantum dot structures,

*Near-field optical microscopy and the nanooptics of nanoscale optical problems,

*Identifying and exploiting the physics of metal nanoparticle plasmonics

*Defining the physics of hybrid quantum dot/metal nanoparticle quantum structures;

*Exploiting these examples to better understand the transition from classical to quantum response, and to model the transport of quantum information

*Understanding and elucidating the quantum plasmonics of metal nanoparticles and the transition from classical to quantum response.