IIN Frontiers in Nanotechnology Seminar Series – Jeremy Baumberg

Professor Jeremy Baumberg, FRS

Director, NanoPhotonics Centre & Nano Doctoral Training Centre
Cavendish Laboratory, Dept. of Physics
University of Cambridge
Hosted by Professor George Schatz

Abstract

Coupling between plasmonic metal nano-components generates strongly red-shifted resonances combined with intense local field amplification on the nanoscale. This allows us to watch in real time individual molecules and atoms or excitons in semiconductors. We have recently explored plasmonic coupling which can be tuned dynamically, through reliable bottom-up self-assembly using a nanoparticle-on-mirror geometry (NPoM). Now we show that it is possible to confine light to below 1nm³, allowing  us to see single atoms move dynamically, and examine single bonds within a molecule. We show how molecular optomechanics works, and how it provides the ability to track and watch molecules interact and react. This opens up the ability to study chemistry molecule-by-molecule and potentially to control single reaction pathways.

Biography

Prof. Jeremy J. Baumberg FRS, directs a UK Nano-Photonics Centre at the University of Cambridge and has extensive experience in developing optical materials structured on the nano-scale that can be assembled in large volume. He is also Director of the Cambridge Nano Doctoral Training Centre, a key UK site for training PhD students in interdisciplinary Nano research. Strong experience with Hitachi, IBM, and his own spin-offs help him combine academic insight with industry application. With over 18000 citations, he is a leading innovator in Nano. This has led to awards of the Royal Society Rumford Medal (2014), IoP Young Medal (2013), Royal Society Mullard Prize (2005), the IoP Charles Vernon Boys Medal (2000) and the IoP Mott Lectureship (2005). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Optical Society of America, the Institute of Physics, and the Institute of NanoTechnology.