WFU Physics Colloquium

TITLE: Micro-lasers, ultrafast detectors, and quantum emitters: tailoring nanoscale materials for photonic applications

SPEAKER: Dr. Joel Q. Grim

TIME: Wednesday March 16, 2016 at 4:00 PM

PLACE: Room 101 Olin Physical Laboratory

Colloidal nanocrystals - produced in a diverse variety of shapes, sizes, and compositions - are rapidly developing into a new generation of photonic materials, spanning light emitting as well as energy harvesting applications. This versatility is facilitated in large part by precise tailoring of their optoelectronic properties, enabling them to satisfy disparate, application-specific requirements. Further, because they are synthesized in solution, they are substrate independent and can be integrated into a range of platforms and/or combined with other technologies. In this talk, I will present some recent work with novel shape-controlled nanocrystals (quantum dot-in-rods, rod-in-rods, and nanosheets) performed in the Nanocrystal Photonics lab at the Italian Institute of Technology. I will also present a new application area for colloidal nanocrystals as ultrafast detectors, which is motivated by an increasing demand for substantially improved time resolution for next-generation PET scanners and particle colliders.