Self-assembly of Anisotropic Nanostructure for Metal Enhanced Fluorescence and Plasmonically Triggered Drug Release
Daniel Aili, Erik Martinsson (IFM, LiU), Mira Patel, Atul Parikh (UC Davis, USA)
Self-assembly is a powerful strategy for obtaining complex nanostructures and hybrid materials. Structurally well-defined anisotropic supramolecular nanostructures are frequently found in nature but are, however, inherently difficult to realize synthetically using techniques based on molecular self-assembly. In this project, a novel strategy will be examined for obtaining anisotropic assemblies of plasmonic NPs using a biomimetic supramolecular template based on reconstituted Lipoprotein A (LpA).
Exploring ZnO nanostructures embedded in polymers for enhanced performance in light emission and photovoltaic applications
Fengling Zhang, Fredrick Karlsson (IFM, LiU)
ZnO is a material with excellent optical qualities, with a potential to replace the significantly more expensive GaN for white and blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs). However, currently the main challenge for ZnO-based LEDs is the inherent difficulty to p-dope ZnO. A promising bypass of this problem is to grow high-quality ZnO nanostructures on p-doped foreign substrates, such as Si or SiC [see Fig.1(a)]. A remaining problem with such nanostructures is the thermal activation of deep levels/surface states which act to substantially reduce the efficiency of the near band edge (NBE) emission at room temperature [see Fig.1(b)]. In this project we will explore passivation of the surface related non-radiative recombination by coating the nanostructures with appropriate polymers. The investigated nanostructures will be fabricated by two different methods: Chemical bath deposition (CBD) as well as atmospheric pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition (APMOCVD) [1].