EAPSI: Optical Characterization of Atomically-Thin Two-Dimensional Materials as Nanoscale Light Emitters

Tahersima Mohammadhossein, Arlington VA

Investigators

Abstract

Light emitting components are used widely in modern technologies, processes and applications such as computing, sensing, bio-medical applications, and telecommunication. A fundamental limitation for active light emitting devices exists due to the inherently weak interaction between light with matter. This naturally leads to inefficient and bulky photonic device that are significantly larger compared to electronic counterparts, slow device speeds, require higher power consumption, and result in uneconomical component and system cost. This award supports research to study a hybrid of atomically thin materials and plasmonic metals as a potential candidate for nanoscale and fast light amplification emitter. This technology can have great benefit to society by enabling faster computing while reducing the power consumption incurred by current technologies. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Cesare Soci, an eminent scientist in the field of nanotechnology and optical spectroscopy at the Center of Disruptive Photonic Technologies (CDPT) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. It is the aim of this award to explore transition metal dichalcogenides (in particular, molybdenum disulfide) materials and demonstrate deep-sub wavelength scale plasmonic enhanced light emitting devices. This work will utilize cleanroom and imaging center at George Washington University to achieve fabrication of nanoscale optical antennas. Next, the plasmonic enhanced emission performance of the 2D material will be characterized by mirco photoluminescence measurements, and time resolved measurement at CDPT. Also the optical spectrum analyzer will be used to find the resonances of fabricated cavities excited by the broadband source. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the National Research Foundation of Singapore.