Description of Ph.D. project in EXSS for Oct 2013 Entry Project title: Principal Supervisor: Email: Other supervisors: Nanostructured Organic Circularly Polarized Optoelectronic Devices Alasdair Campbell (Physics) alasdair.campbell@imperial.ac.uk Matthew Fuchter (Chemistry) Project No: AJC1 Telephone 47567 Aims of the project: The aim of this project is to fabricate and investigate novel nano-scale organic semiconductor optoelectronic devices fabricated from intrinsically chiral, helically shaped organic semiconductor molecules which come in left- and right-handed spiral forms. These materials have many unique characteristics, including the ability to form self-orientated supramolecular structures. They also absorb and emit circularly polarised light, suggesting the exciting possibility of circularly polarised organic light emitting diodes and photodiodes. If downscaled such devices could be used in optical communication and quantum computing. The purpose of this project is to investigate organic semiconductor optoelectronic devices based on these chiral materials which can emit, or detect, circularly polarized light. It will be to initially explore these materials in micron-scale devices, before using UV nanoimprint lithography (NIL) to push device dimensions deep into the nano-scale regime. As well as actual devices, it will use NIL to create nano-scale arrays with unique photonic properties. This work will be in close cooperation with the Matthew Fuchter group in Chemistry who will synthesize the materials. Techniques, activities, and equipment used Optoelectronic devices and photonic structures will be fabricated using conventional photolithography and UV NIL expertise which exists in the Campbell group. Devices will be characterised using circularly polarised current-voltage-luminousity, spectral emission and photocurrent measurements. Photonic response will be investigated using such techniques as circularly polarised steady-state and time-dependent excitation and emission measurements. Locations of equipment / collaborators Devices will be fabricated in the EXSS Cleanroom and CPE Glovebox facility. Measurements will be conducted in the EXSS group facilities, or using apparatus with collaborators at the University of St Andrews. Devices may also be fabricated by vacuum sublimation with collaborators at the University of Florida. Description of Ph.D. project in EXSS for Oct 2013 Entry Project title: Principal Supervisor: Email: Other supervisors: Nanoscale Printed Plastic Electronic Devices Alasdair Campbell (Physics) alasdair.campbell@imperial.ac.uk Project No: AJC2 Telephone 47567 Aims of the project: One of the core advantages of organic semiconductor technology over its inorganic counterpart is the possibility of fabricating very thin, uniform devices by large-area printing techniques. This would greatly reduce fabrication cost and allow the fabrication of novel devices such as large-area, lightweight, flexible plastic electronic lighting, solar cells and electronic circuitry. At Imperial we have developed gravure contact printing, the ultra high volume roll-to-roll (R2R) technique conventionally used to manufacture magazines and currency, as a method to fabricate high performance organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and field-effect transistors (OFETs). However, these are relatively large devices, conventional gravure limiting feature sizes to length scales > 10 microns. The purpose of this project is to break this barrier and combine gravure contact printing with nanoimprint lithography (NIL) to fabricate nano-scale printed/imprinted organic optoelectronic devices. This will done using pre-existing UV-NIL fabrication expertise within the Campbell group. Targeted devices will be novel OLEDs, OFETs and optoelectronic circuits with feature sizes of order 100-500 nm. Techniques, activities, and equipment used The larger scale structures and films will be printed using the in-house gravure printer. UV-NIL structures will be fabricated using the mask aligner in the EXSS cleanroom. Printed/imprinted structures and devices will be investigated using imaging techniques such as atomic force microscopy (AFM). OLEDs and OFETs will be characterised using current-voltage-luminousity, spectral emission, transfer and output characteristic measurements. Locations of equipment / collaborators Devices will be fabricated in the EXSS Cleanroom and CPE Glovebox. Measurements will be conducted in the EXSS group facilities. Industrial and National Laboratory collaborators in the initial part of this project will include the EC funded FP7 POLARIC project partners Micro Resist Technology (Germany), AMO (Germany) and Joanneum Research (Austria). AFM measurements will be conducted at Imperial or the London Centre of Nanotechnology (LCN). Description of Ph.D. project in EXSS for Oct 2013 Entry Project title: Principal Supervisor: Email: Laser-based biomedical Imaging for Cancer Diagnosis. (Oct 2013 Entry) Prof. Chris Phillips. chris.phillips@imperial.ac.uk Project No: CCP1 Telephone X 47575 Other supervisors: Aims of the project: The mid-IR part of the spectrum (3m<<20m) has long been popular with chemists because most chemical bonds have sharp vibrational absorption features in this range, so complex bio-molecules can be identified by their spectrally “fingerprints” . Very recently, accelerator-based synchrotron radiation experiments have shown that these absorption features can be used as an entirely new way of imaging living tissues. At IC we are applying a range of new IR laser sources and sophisticated ex-military IR cameras to make entirely new IR imaging systems targeted on the problem of diagnosing and monitoring disease, particularly Cancer. At the moment, if you are unlucky enough to find a suspicious lump in, say, your throat, you will be passed up a line of increasingly specialized medics, and along the way a sample of the lump will be taken from your body, sliced and mounted on a microscope slide, and stained with a handful of vegetable dyes. Your treatment (which could be anything from nothing at all to having your throat removed) would depend on an entirely subjective assessment from an experienced pathologist who looks for tell tale shapes and structures in the tissue slice. Now we are using out IR technological expertise to put this process on a solid numerical footing. Our “Digital Staining” method maps out the concentrations of the chemicals in the tissues, in a few seconds, from their IR absorption characteristics. This allows us to construct a wide range of false-colour images and numerical indices for the clinicians that are far more amenable to proper statistical tests than the current subjective eyeballing approach. Our methods range from sophisticated lab techniques (picosecond lasers, near field AFM-based imagers, new tunable laser sources) costing 100’s of thousands of pounds, to much simpler, cheaper (~£30K ) and less flexible systems that are targeted for commercial exploitation so they can be used by the clinicians themselves. We collaborate with researchers at the Cancer Research labs, Lincolns Inn Fields. Single cell studies will also be pursued with collaborators in Chemistry and Chem Eng. and the Diamond Synchrotron. This is a bold and open-ended project, but, in the hands of the right sort of student, it offers the chance to be in on the ground floor of an entirely new technique at the interface between the physics and life sciences. The technology has been fully patented by Imperial and the commercial prospects are being pursued vigorously. Techniques, activities, and equipment used Optical system design and fabrication. Mid-IR imaging of histo-pathology specimens. Non-linear optical spectroscopy using an “optical parametric generator” laser source. Laser development, and computerized equipment control and data acquisition. Imaging Breast cancer biopsies. Locations of equipment / collaborators Level 9, Blackett lab. Travel to collaborators in Europe and the US is also likely. Cancer specimen samples from CRUK UK and Charing Cross Hospital. Description of Ph.D. project in EXSS for Oct 2013 Entry Project title: Principal Supervisor: Email: Quantum Optics with Strongly-Coupled Semiconductor Nanostructures. (Oct 2013 Entry) Prof. Chris Phillips. Project No: chris.phillips@imperial.ac.uk CCP2 Telephone X 47575 Other supervisors: Aims of the project: Ordinarily, the emission and absorption of light by an atom can be well described with a weakly-coupled perturbative quantum mechanical treatment. This gives rise to such concepts as the superposition principle, spontaneous emission lifetimes, stimulated emission and the population inversion requirement for lasing. However, if the atom is placed in a sufficiently small and perfect optical cavity, the “Vacuum Rabi” coupling energy between the light and the matter can become so large that this perturbative picture no longer holds, and the system must be treated as containing a new hybridized set of excitations, each part light and part matter, with intriguing , and potentially useful characteristics. Although these “Strongly-Coupled” systems were initially pursued by the atom spectroscopists some years ago, recently there has been an explosion of progress and a number of all solid state systems have emerged, typically involving either excitons or intersubband transitions in semiconductors, coupled to optical cavities made from either multilayer mirrors or so-called “Plasmonic” structures to confine the optical fields. We have just shown, in a landmark experiment, that these structures allow us to make lasers which work without needing to satisfy the “population inversion “ condition first defined by Einstein. For the first time they lase straightaway, without needing to be excited above a threshold level of excitation. The SC cavities also have remarkably long coherence times and this project will use a mix of theoretical and experimental approaches to refine, extend and optimise this effect in a series of improved device designs. Techniques, activities, and equipment used Laser system for picosecond pump-probe spectroscopy. Cryogenic and Fourier Spectroscopy techniques. Sample processing in semiconductor cleanroom. MBE semiconductor growth. Locations of equipment / collaborators Geographical Location of Equipment: Level 9 Blackett, cleanrooms in Blackett basement. Collaborators at Sheffield, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California, Los Angeles and the diamond Synchrotron Description of Ph.D. project in EXSS for Oct 2012 Entry Project title: Principal Supervisor: Email: Other supervisors: Towards Electrically Pumped Organic MASERs Joint Physics – Materials studentship Professor Donal Bradley (Physics) d.bradley@imperial.ac.uk Dr Mark Oxborrow (Materials) Project No: DDCB1 Telephone 46304 Aims of the project: In a recent groundbreaking Nature paper Dr Mark Oxborrow and colleagues demonstrated the first room temperature MASER (a laser operating in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum), using population inversion among the triplet levels of pentacene molecules dispersed in a p-terphenyl host.[1] The MASER was optically pumped via absorption across the pentacene optical gap to create an excited singlet state, followed by intersystem crossing into the triplet (see schematic below) manifold. An intriguing alternative approach to optical pumping would be to use the injection and subsequent recombination of electrons and holes in an organic diode to generate triplet states directly. Doing so would realize the world’s first electrically pumped organic Pentacene MASER optical pumping scheme:[1] MASER, spawning a wholly Optical absorption (S0 to S1) is followed by new class of spintronics intersystem crossing from S1 to T1. The black device with potentially circles indicate the population of the X, Y and Z important applications in triplet levels. [1] space communications and ultra-sensitive diagnostics. The goal of this PhD studentship will be to assess rigorously whether it is possible to make such a “diode MASER” and, if possible, to attempt to make one. Critical factors that will determine the viability of this approach include the distribution of triplet excitations among the three triplet levels that results from electrical pumping, the microwave losses that arise in proximity to the injection electrodes, the pumping rate required to establish inversion and the stability of the triplet states against non-radiative decay to the ground state. The student assigned to this project will work closely with two other students assigned to complementary projects that will focus on the development of new materials for optically pumped MASERs (led by Dr Martin Heeney (Chemistry) and Professor Neil Alford (Materials)). The student on the “diode MASER” project will be responsible for designing and constructing novel structures and experimental rigs as well as analyzing data against theoretical models. This project would suit an all-rounder with a strong interest in modern solid-state device physics (specifically organic spintronics), and who is happy working in an interdisciplinary team. [1] “Room temperature solid-state maser” M. Oxborrow, J.D. Breeze, N.M. Alford, Nature 488, 353-356. DOI 10.1038/nature11339. Description of Ph.D. project in EXSS for Oct 2013 Entry Project title: Principal Supervisor: Email: Other supervisors: Printing Organic Nanostructures for Plastic Electronics Dr. Ji-Seon Kim ji-seon.kim@imperial.ac.uk Project No: JSK1 Telephone ext.47597 Aims of the project: Plastic (Printed or Organic) Electronics is a new technology that enables organic electronic devices to be printed onto a range of surfaces for large area, flexible and low-cost applications. The main challenge still remains to find a way of controlling and thus printing molecules, in particular organic semiconductors, from a solution while maintaining their optical and electrical functionalities. This project aims to develop a novel solution-deposition technique, so called zone-casting, to print organic semiconductors in thin films (< 100nm) with controlled structure and morphology. Through systematically varying printing parameters, we target to achieve thin film morphology of organic semiconductors desired for optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and transistors. We will develop a systematic understanding of the relationships between nanostructures and optoelectronic properties of organic semiconductors and to correlate them to the performance of organic devices. Particular attension will be paid to use zone-casting technique to control the molecular order and orientation aiming at a significant increase in charge carrier mobilities of thin film transistors. Other electroactive materials including organic/inorganic hybrids and metal oxides will be tested for zone-casting. Examples of printing thin film structures of molecules using zone-casting are shown below. Molecules are printed on transistor substrates only with different printing speeds. Refs: [1] James et al., ACS Nano (2011), [2] Tsoi et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2011), [3] Yim, et al, Nano Letters (2010), [4] Adv. Funct. Mater. (2011), 21, 1279–1295. Techniques, activities, and equipment used Techniques including zone-casting and other coating methods required for fabrication and characterisation of organic thin films and devices will be used. In addition, advanced imaging techniques including Raman spectroscopy, scanning Kelvin probe microscopy and AFM will be used. All fabrication and advanced imaging techniques are available at Imperial. Locations of equipment / collaborators Most equipment for device fabrication and characterisation is based at IC. Advanced nanoanalysis techniques, if necessary, will be carried out using equipment based at National Physical Laboratory (NPL). For this project, we will take advantage of the availability of high quality materials supplied by existing commercial collaborators (CDT/ Sumitomo Chemical, Merck Chemicals), as well as via in-house synthesis and external academic collaborations. Description of Ph.D. project in EXSS for Oct 2013 Entry Project title: Principal Supervisor: Email: Other supervisors: Quantum properties of plasmon nanowaveguides Prof. Stefan Maier Project No: S.Maier@imperial.ac.uk Prof. Myungshik Kim SM-01 Telephone46063 Aims of the project: Metallic nanostructures allow breaking the diffraction limit of optics, via the excitation of so-called surface plasmon polaritons. This has over the last decade led to the emergence of the new science of nanoplasmonics, which marries photonics with nanotechnology for the generation of highly integrated photonic devices. In this project, we want to marry plasmonics with quantum optics. Specifically, we will investigate interactions between single photons and single plasmons in nanostructured metallic plasmon waveguides. For example, we plan to interfere single plasmons with each other, and demonstrate the famous Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment in a nanoscale optical waveguide. This could be the stepping stone for the generation of more advanced components such as nanoscale quantum gates, and new types of highly sensitive optical sensors, based on quantum effects. Techniques, activities, and equipment used Single-photon source, optical microscopy and spectroscopy, nanofabrication, computational design of photonic nanostructures Locations of equipment / collaborators Blackett Laboratory ** Please contact Prof Stefan Maier before applying**. Description of Ph.D. project in EXSS for Oct 2013 Entry Project title: Principal Supervisor: Email: Other supervisors: Photonic metadevices: functional nanophotonics via plasmonics and metamaterials concepts Prof. Stefan Maier Project No: S.Maier@imperial.ac.uk Dr. Rupert Oulton, Prof. Ortwin Hess SM-02 Telephone46063 Aims of the project: Metamaterials and nanoplasmonics have over the last years developed into cornerstones for the development of new optical materials, with properties not found in nature. Based on metallic and dielectric nanostructures, these new materials have enabled us to demonstrate fascinating optical phenomena such as negative refraction, perfect lensing, optical cloaking, as well as new types of nanolasers and highly integrated optical sensors. The aim of this project is to extend this fundamental research towards new classes of highly miniaturized optical devices, particularly sensors and light sources. Techniques, activities, and equipment used Optical microscopy and spectroscopy, fs laser source, nanofabrication, computational modelling Locations of equipment / collaborators Blackett Laboratory Description of Ph.D. project in EXSS for Oct 2013 Entry Project title: Principal Supervisor: Email: Other supervisors: Nanoplasmonic and graphene-based biosensors Prof. Stefan Maier S.Maier@imperial.ac.uk Prof. Lesley Cohen Project No: SM-03 Telephone46063 Aims of the project: The key to detecting small quantities of molecules optically lies in generating sub-wavelength light spots in a controlled manner. This can be achieved using metallic nanostructures, via the excitation of so called localized surface plasmons. Over the last decade this new science of nanoplasmonics has evolved into the backbone of integrated optical biosensors, for example the well-known pregnancy test. In this project, we will combine metallic nanostructures with graphene, in order to develop new classes of optical biosensors with electrical control and read-out. The graphene will both enable electrical tuning of the optical properties of the metallic nanostructures, and also act as a sensitization layer for the binding of target molecules. Techniques, activities, and equipment used Optical microscopy and spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, mid-infrared spectroscopoy, ultrafast measurements, nanofabrication, computational modelling Locations of equipment / collaborators Blackett Laboratory Description of Ph.D. project in EXSS for Oct 2013 Entry Project title: On-demand patterned nanoelectronics by scanning thermal lithography Principal Supervisor: Email: Other supervisors: Prof. Thomas Anthopoulos t.anthopoulos@imperial.ac.uk Project No: Telephone TA1 46669 Aims of the project: Developments in the emerging class of organic semiconductors are continuing at pace and in many instances are now widely seen to offer a genuine alternative to traditional inorganic-based technologies. Despite the excellent progress, however, an important challenge for the wider deployment of the technology is the inability to pattern organic materials with high resolution. Organic based devices comprising sub-micron elements are important because they could seed future developments in the field of nanoelectronics as well as enable advanced studies into the fundamental opto-electronic processes in organic materials at the nanoscale. Furthermore, the availability of organic-compatible nano-patterning methods could potentially allow the fabrication of organic-based sensors on a scale not previously achieved. The latter could significantly improve their speed and sensitivity and hence pave the way for future developments. A promising area of research attempting to address the issue of nanomanufacturing is the manipulation and patterning of materials using direct scanning probe tools such as thermal nanolithography by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The versatility and precision of this method is so great that has even been used to produce 3D structures of molecular photoresist and write features with resolutions below 30 nm at speeds approaching that of electron beam (e-beam) lithography. Recently our team at Imperial College has used AFM scanning thermal lithography to demonstrate the first active nanostructured electronic devices based on organic semiconductors (see data and images in the figure below; adopted from Shaw et al., Advanced Materials 2012 – in press). This project will built on this early work and explore the use of scanning thermal nanolithography for the development of a range of nano-scale devices with dimensions in the range 10-40 nanometres. These nanoscale devices (nano-sensors, nano-transistors etc) will then be used to study the fundamental transport processes in a range of semiconductors at the nanoscale. At a later stage, research will focus on rapid prototyping of integrated nano-scale opto/electronics realised entirely by thermal scanning lithography. This unique combination of advanced techniques with unconventional organic materials is expected to lead to development of novel nanoscale devices for a host of emerging applications. Techniques, activities, and equipment used: A range of state of the art techniques are available within the Anthopoulos group for the successful completion of this project. These include: - Material processing using solution and vacuum based techniques - Material characterisation techniques such as UV/Vis absorption, transmission, photoluminescence, Raman and FTIR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning Kelvin force microscopy - Device fabrication using conventional photolithography and advanced scanning thermochemical nanolithography - Device characterisation methods such as electrical/optical measurements, currentvoltage-temperature measurements, scanning probe electrical measurements Locations of equipment / collaborators: All equipment and open central facilities to be used are located in the south Kensington campus, Imperial College London. Description of Ph.D. project in EXSS for Oct 2013 Entry Project title: Transparent semiconductors for photovoltaics applications Principal Supervisor: Email: Other supervisors: Prof. Thomas Anthopoulos t.anthopoulos@imperial.ac.uk Project No: Telephone TA2 46669 Aims of the project: Wide band gap semiconductors that are easy to process over large-area substrates are in great demand for numerous opto-electronic applications where optical transparency and charge transport are concurrently required. Few example applications include transparent charge transporting layers in photovoltaics and light-emitting diodes as well as channel materials for fully transparent microelectronics. Although electron transporting wide bandgap semiconductors are very common, their hole-transporting counterparts are very rare. Thus, discovery and/or development of new compounds with appreciable hole-transport characteristics would be required for realising the next generation large-area optoelectronics. Aim of this project is to study a range of unconventional inorganic and solution processible compounds, such as pseudohalides, for application in various optoelectronic devices including semitransparent solar cells and photodetectors. One interesting family of molecular compounds to be investigated is the pseudohalides. Copper(I) thiocyanate (CuSCN), for example, is one of the very few known compounds that combines high optical transparency with significant p-type conductivity. Most importantly, CuSCN is inexpensive and can be processed from solution at room temperature, thus making it an ideal candidate for application in transparent opto-electronics fabricated using high throughput manufacturing processes (e.g. printing) onto inexpensive flexible plastic substrates. Recently our group at Imperial College was the first to demonstrate field-induced hole-transport in CuSCN thin-film transistors and the fabrication of transparent integrated circuits (see Figure). Using this preliminary work as the starting point, research in this project will focus on the study of fundamental transport processes in these relatively unknown molecular semiconductors and their utilisation in unconventional optoelectronics such as semitransparent solar cells and photodetectors. This work could potentially lead to the discovery of new p-type transparent semiconductors and the development of next-generation large-area optoelectronics with unusual characteristics e.g. semitransparency. Techniques, activities, and equipment used Our laboratory is fully equipped with a range of state of the art techniques necessary for the successful completion of this project. These include: - Material processing using solution and vacuum based techniques - Material characterisation techniques such as UV/Vis absorption, transmission, photoluminescence, Raman and FTIR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning Kelvin force microscopy - Device fabrication using conventional photolithography and advanced scanning thermochemical nanolithography - Device characterisation methods such as electrical/optical measurements, currentvoltage-temperature measurements, scanning probe electrical measurements Locations of equipment / collaborators: All equipment and open central facilities to be used are located in the south Kensington campus, Imperial College London. Description of Ph.D. project in EXSS for Oct 2013 Entry Project title: Principal Supervisor: Email: Other supervisors: Magnetic Nanostructures Dr Will Branford w.branford@imperial.ac.uk Prof. Lesley Cohen Project No: WRB1 Telephone 46674 Aims of the project: My main research interests are magnetism and electrical transport in magnetic fields. Within the last three years my group has founded a new field of study related to the creation and manipulation of what are known as magnetic monopole defects in artificial magnetic nanostructured systems.1-5 The aim of this project will be to control the properties of these so called frustrated magnets using nanofabrication. Arrays of nanomagnets will be designed and fabricated to further develop the concepts related to magnetic frustration. [1] Understand the role of material, size and geometry in the formation of these magnetic monopole defects [2] Optimise the structures for either free flow of magnetic charge or storage of monopole defects [3] Investigate methods of control of monopole defects with additional nanofeatures in the array and/or local magnetic fields. [4] Consider possible applications for these nanoarrays (e.g. data storage, data processing by logic functions) and design experiments to test feasibility. 1 Ladak, S., Read, D., Tyliszczak, T., Branford, W. R. & Cohen, L. F. New Journal of Physics 13, 023023, (2011). 2 Branford, W. R., Ladak, S., Read, D. E., Zeissler, K. & Cohen, L. F. Science 335, 15971600, (2012). 3 Ladak, S., Read, D. E., Perkins, G. K., Cohen, L. F. & Branford, W. R. Nature Physics 6, 359-363, (2010). 4 Wang, R. F., Nisoli, C., Freitas, R. S., Li, J., McConville, W., Cooley, B. J., Lund, M. S., Samarth, N., Leighton, C., Crespi, V. H. & Schiffer, P. Nature 439, 303-306, (2006). 5 Tchernyshyov, O. Nature Physics 6, 323-324, (2010). Techniques, activities, and equipment used: PhD projects in the group will typically involve a mix of sample preparation, structural characterization, magnetic and transport measurements and micromagnetic simulations. Cleanroom sample processing includes deposition of metal films and lithography (optical, e-beam and focused ion beam). Structural studies involve imaging by optical, electron and magnetic microscopy and x-ray diffraction. Magnetic measurement techniques include vibrating sample magnetometry and magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) spectroscopy. Transport studies include magnetoresistance and Hall effect measurements over a wide range of temperatures and magnetic fields. Locations of equipment / collaborators: All in the Blackett Lab. Fabrication in the EXSS nanofabrication lab and cleanroom. Other measurements in the labs of the functional magnetism group (B815 and B219).