Illinois State University’s Dr. Uttam Manna and Dr. Mahua Biswas received a nearly $290,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue research on experimental physics from the Division of Material Research (DMR) under the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences.
Manna, Biswas and their students will study how light interacts with materials on the incredibly small nano scale, known as nano-photonics research in the community. One nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. A sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick.
The emerging field of nanophotonics is used to explore applications such as solar energy, imaging, medicine, optical communications, and data storage. So far, scientists have mainly focused on nanophotonic effects in materials with a high refractive index, such as silicon and germanium. Manna and Biswas are looking to unravel nanophotonic effects on specific sources called “mid-index micro-sized, dielectric materials.” In other words, they are looking into the possibility of how light interacts with matter in previously unexplored materials, such as diamond and titanium oxide materials by confining electromagnetic fields at a larger scale.
“This research will push the boundary in terms of availability of materials and their size well beyond the current limit for observation of these novel nanophotonic effects,” said Manna. “In the long run, the knowledge gained from the team’s research could be used to develop more efficient optical and photonic devices, such as photodetectors and nanolasers.”
Appears InStudents in Manna’ laboratory will work to broaden the workforce in optics and photonics by training undergraduate students in research and integrating the results of this research project into the physics curriculum. Manna also earned university’s first experimental physics NSF grant in 2018.
