Spectroscopy at the Nanoscale

by Dr Michele Ortolani (Sapienza Università di Roma)

Tuesday 7 Feb 2017, 16:00 → 18:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Conversi (Dipartimento di Fisica - Ed. G.Marconi)

The birth and development of nanotechnologies has opened an entirely new route for the control of light (including infrared and terahertz radiation) at the deeply sub-wavelength nanometer scale, through the collective electromagnetic excitation of electrons in metals and in doped semiconductors. In this seminar, the concept of plasmon is first re-defined in two- and in three dimensions, in relation to the classical concepts of surface plasmon polariton and bulk plasmon, with a look at the possibilities opened by modern nanofabrication technologies. Then, three recent major advances in applied physics, which were made possible by infrared plasmonics, are introduced: the Quantum Cascade Laser, the Near-Field Infrared Microscope, and the Infrared Nanoantenna. Contributions given by us to these fields are highlighted. Finally, perspective studies of infrared spectroscopy at the nanoscale of single biological macromolecules, single semiconductor nanowires/nanocrystals and inhomogeneous states of electrons in solids are discussed.