Ultrafine nanoparticle plasmonics
The Swedish Research Council reached a decision on November 7, 2022 on project grants and starting grants within Natural and Engineering Sciences. The Department of Physics and Astronomy is granted 27 430 000 SEK for the period 2023-2026 for in total six project grants and one starting grant. The projects will begin during 2023.
Read more about the Swedish Research Council's grants within Natural and Engineering Sciences 2022
Project Description
Project title: Ultrafine nanoparticle plasmonics
Main applicant: Hans Ågren, Division of X-ray Photon Science
Grant amount: SEK 4 100 000 for the period 2023-2026
Plasmonics serves as a most outstanding feature of nanotechnology and is nowadays used in numerous applications within imaging, sensing and energy harvesting. Although plasmonics has been exploited since ancient times, the understanding of the underlying interactions has not been fully achieved even after the emergence of modern nanoscience. In particular it has been difficult to address the “ultrafine” 1 – 10 nm regime, important for applications especially in the bioimaging and biomedical areas and where neither classical nor quantum based theoretical methods apply. Recently, we derived a semi-empirical discrete interaction model for ultrafine plasmonics to bridge this gap. It has already been used in benchmark studies concerning size, shape, material and temperature dependence of ultrafine plasmonic nanoparticles. A goal of the present project is to implement the model in multiscale and multiphysics contexts, making it applicable to design plasmonic nanoparticles in heterogeneous environments, including organic shells and ligands, solvents and surfaces. We will embark on a set of cutting-edge applications of ultrafine plasmonics in the areas of bioimaging, photothermal therapy and infrared light harvesting and photodetection. We connect to collaborative experimental work including synthesis, device fabrication and measurements with feedback and validation. With this strategy we will develop novel plasmonic systems with unprecedented performance and applicability.