Plasmonics in organic-inorganic hybrid systems

The optical excitation of particle (Mie) plasmons in Ag nanoparticles and nanowires of different size, shape and order is currently investigated intensively as therewith a coupling of optical and electrical signal processing might possibly be realized. A main problem consists, nevertheless, in the relatively fast relaxation dynamics of the excited electronic excitation and, hence, reduced propagation length of the signal. In this project, the possibility of a signal propagation length increase by a hybrid structure, i.e., by an electronic coupling of Ag nanostructures with organic semiconductor molecules (OS), shall be examined. By the formation of new hybrid orbitals at the nanoparticle/OS interface and, thus, the possibility of an electronic interaction with the surrounding matrix, the possibility for a new transmission channel can be provided. In the first step, defined nanoparticles (structured by means of electron-beam lithography) covered by a homogeneous ultrathin OS layer will be studied. Advanced more complex systems could consist of mixed OS systems (2 different OS) as well as of three-dimensional core-shell systems. These systems shall especially be investigated with regard to their electronic structure and its influence on the signal dynamics/translocation. The experiments will be performed using static UV photoelectron spectroscopy, inverse photoelectron spectroscopy (Ziegler group) and also time resolved two-photon photoemission spectroscopy as well as energy and space resolved photoelectron microscopy (Aeschlimann group).

The project is currently allocated to basic research, a breakthrough into opto-electronics, especially also in the nanometer scale, would in the long-term be of high economic interest.

Principal Investigators:

Prof. Dr. Martin Aeschlimann (Department of Physics, TU Kaiserslautern)

Prof. Dr. Christiane Ziegler(Department of Physics, TU Kaiserslautern)