[Seminar] "Lightly probing the nanoscale" by Prof. Reece

Speaker: Dr. Peter J. Reece

Affiliation: School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney

Abstract:

Combining nanotechnology with optical tweezers offers a great opportunity for developing new ways of exploring physical and biological systems. Plasmonic and resonant dielectric nanoparticles can exhibit optical properties that enhance certain types of optical and thermal interactions, which can be probed through the stochastic motion of the trapped particle. Other types of nanoscale probes (e.g. nanodiamonds) have magneto-optic properties that can be used for high precision nanoscale magnetometry and thermometry. All these nanoparticles provide interaction volumes that are many times smaller than their microscopic counterparts, thereby potentially creating much higher resolutions for sensing in a variety of confined complex environments.

In this presentation I will review our recent experimental efforts aimed at extending optical trapping to different types of nanoscale objects and the incorporation of different spectroscopic techniques into the tweezers arrangement to resolve their dynamics. I will focus on three different types of nanoparticle transducers that have particularly interesting properties, i.e. plasmonic metal nanoparticles, resonant dielectric semiconductor nanoparticles, and nanodiamonds. Each of these types of nanoparticles offer different modes of interrogation and are sensitive to environmental factors.

Biography:

Peter Reece completed his PhD in Physics at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2004. From 2005 to 2007 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of St Andrews (United Kingdom), before returning to UNSW as Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow in 2008. He is currently a senior lecturer within the School of Physics at UNSW where his research interests include, optical trapping and micromanipulation, biophotonics, nanophotonics and laser spectroscopy of semiconductor materials and devices.