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Maxwell Centre

 

Collaborative areas include

Manipulation and control of light at nanoscale

The NanoPhotonics Centre led by Prof Jeremy Baumberg works on exploitation of nanostructure, metallic surfaces and tiny particles to manipulate light at nanoscale. Themes include:

  • plasmonics - surfaces and nanoparticles exploiting nanometallic structures to resonantly enhance electric field intensities; applications range from solar cells to sensing molecules 
  • microcavities - wavelength-sized optical traps for light of a specific colour, where distinction between light and matter can be blurred and new applications emerge 
  • active metamaterials - new sort of optical materials constructed from nano-engieered elements
  • elastomeric photonics - techniques for industrial scale compatible manufacturing of structural colour films.

Optofluidics

Hollow-core optical fibers enable interaction of fluids with concentrated light which in turn allows for signal amplification and high optical response sensitivity in a very small volume. Photonic crystal structure forces the light to travel through the hollow core of the fibre which can be filled with liquid to be studied.

For more information please visit Optofluidic research theme page or contact the lead researcher - Dr Tijmen Euser

Optical conveyor belt

Dr Tijmen Euser recently showed that microparticles can be moved over long distances and precisely positioned in a low-loss air-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibre by exciting coherent superpositions of spatial modes. The beat pattern allows trapped microparticles to be moved and exquisitely positioned along the fibre by tuning the relative phase between the modes.