Early-Stage Medical Diagnostics by Plasmon-Mediated Gas Sensing. This project will investigate the use plasmonic absorption of light in metal nanostructures to activate the selective oxidation/reduction of a gas molecule on a semiconductor nanoparticle. This concept will be used with the aim of developing a sensing technique capable of measuring ultra-low concentrations (ppb) of breath markers for lung cancer detection. It is expected that porous sensing films of semiconductor and metal nanopart ....Early-Stage Medical Diagnostics by Plasmon-Mediated Gas Sensing. This project will investigate the use plasmonic absorption of light in metal nanostructures to activate the selective oxidation/reduction of a gas molecule on a semiconductor nanoparticle. This concept will be used with the aim of developing a sensing technique capable of measuring ultra-low concentrations (ppb) of breath markers for lung cancer detection. It is expected that porous sensing films of semiconductor and metal nanoparticles with well-defined light absorption properties will be fabricated. Superior selectivity will be achieved by matching the wavelength of the absorbed light with the required activation energy for oxidation/reduction. Successful outcomes will enable multi-analyte fingerprint identification by on-chip devices with applications ranging from portable medical diagnostics to national security.Read moreRead less
Insight from Darkness: Nanophotonics for real-time phase imaging. This project aims to develop ultrathin surfaces patterned on the nanoscale for extracting information from optical wavefields. These devices can be designed to provide real-time phase contrast imaging of transparent objects. This capability would open up the possibility of live-cell imaging with no expensive optical components and no, or minimal, computational post-processing. The planar configuration is designed to be compatible ....Insight from Darkness: Nanophotonics for real-time phase imaging. This project aims to develop ultrathin surfaces patterned on the nanoscale for extracting information from optical wavefields. These devices can be designed to provide real-time phase contrast imaging of transparent objects. This capability would open up the possibility of live-cell imaging with no expensive optical components and no, or minimal, computational post-processing. The planar configuration is designed to be compatible with next-generation lab-on-a-chip technologies and permit rapid throughput diagnostics with potential applications in biomedicine and materials science. Expected project outcomes may also underpin fundamental advances in understanding the interaction of light with nanostructures.Read moreRead less
Plasmonic nano-antennas for next-generation photon sources. Extending concepts from standard radio-frequency antenna technology down to the nanoscale will open up new applications in fields from biotechnology to telecommunications. This project will embed a light emitting particle in a nanostructured metallic device to produce an ultrabright, directional single-photon source.