OPAN · OPTICAL PROGRAMABLE ASSEMBLY OF NANOMATERIALS
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-12-02 → 2024-07-03
- EU contribution
- €212,934
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
OPTICAL PROGRAMABLE ASSEMBLY OF NANOMATERIALS
This MSCA Individual Fellowship aimed to address critical gaps in our understanding and application of light-matter interactions for the fabrication of advanced nanostructured materials and holographic devices. The project focused on overcoming limitations in: • Predictive modelling of nanomaterial behaviour: Existing tools could not accurately model the complex dynamics of nanoparticle assembly under the influence of light, hindering the design and optimization of novel nanostructured devices. • Sensitive and versatile optical sensor development: Current sensor technologies often lack the required sensitivity, reversibility, and conformability for applications like point-of-care diagnostics and continuous monitoring of biological systems. • Real-world applications of holography: Despite the potential of holography, challenges remained in generating high-resolution holograms in real-time and integrating them into practical devices for applications like augmented reality and 3D visualization. Societal implications: • Healthcare: Advanced optical sensors could revolutionize point-of-care diagnostics, enabling early disease detection, personalized medicine, and improved patient monitoring, ultimately leading to better healthcare outcomes. • Transportation: Real-time holographic displays could enhance driver safety by providing intuitive and immersive information, contributing to safer and more efficient transportation systems. • Infrastructure: Improved inspection techniques, such as free-form laser profilometry, could ensure the integrity and safety of critical infrastructure like pipelines, minimizing the risk of environmental damage and economic losses. • Scientific research: Developing robust simulation platforms and advancing our understanding of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale paves the way for future breakthroughs in nanotechnology, photonics, and materials science. Potential benefits: • Develop a sophisticated simulation platform: This platform would accurately model the formation of nanostructures in configurable materials under the influence of light, enabling the design and optimization of novel nanostructured devices. • Create functionalized nanostructured elements for sensing: The project aimed to develop sensitive, reversible, and conformable sensors for applications like wound monitoring and point-of-care diagnostics. • Develop innovative holographic devices: The focus was on developing real-time holographic projection systems for automotive head-up displays and high-resolution 3D imaging systems for infrastructure inspection.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Recently, I have pioneered the development of a technique of light-induced reconfigurable nanostructured materials. This process consists of the displacement of the nanostructures inside a solid host medium with the action of light. When an incident light beam interacts with the nanostructures, a photon momentum transfer takes place. This momentum serves to displace/rotate the nanostructures inside the medium. During the writing process, the standing waves can assemble complex patterns in a reversible fashion. My research plan includes both the theoretical and experimental aspects of this light-induced self-assembly phenomenon. Theoretical developments will provide an insight into the effect that standing light waves have on embedded nanoscale objects. It is necessary to model the optical, mechanical and thermal characteristics of materials to identify the optimal conditions for low energy assembly of complex nanostructured architectures. Experimentally, I aim to demonstrate the assembly of a metamaterial consisting of crystal nanostructures through standing waves of both, linearly and circularly polarized light. This device will function as an active wave plate that can rotate the polarization of incident light. Subsequently, I will fabricate and demonstrate a tunable laser device by arranging nanoparticles into photonic crystal-like structures. Standing waves will be employed to record multilayer assemblies that will act as resonant cavities. The addition of a fluorescent organic dye, quantum dot or perovskite nanocrystal dispersed into the multilayer structure will provide the necessary conditions to induce stimulated emission to produce laser light. This project will set the ground for the fabrication of low-cost composites for photonic crystals for programable lasers and metamaterials for active wave plates. It is envisioned that this assembly mechanism will also permit the development of a new class of ‘robotic material’ with unprecedented functionalities.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD · OxfordCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union