Research
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Directed assembly of nanostructures: Allowing nanomaterials to self-organize can lead to interesting structures that sometimes span many spatial length scales and may exhibit multi-functionality. We concentrate on dynamic nano-scale formations in metallic, magnetic, and semiconducting compounds, mediated by soft matrices, such as polymers and liquid crystal materials. Some of these nano-assemblies exhibit novel optical and optoelectronic behavior which include electric field controlled inter-particle couplings and plasmonic effects.
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Nanostructured solar concentrators: The need to harness renewable energy sources to fulfil our energy needs is a dominant and self-explanatory one of our times. We are focussing on the development of a novel, non-tracking and inexpensive platform to allow solar energy harvesting which will enhance the performance of traditional silicon and other thin film solar panels. Our approach focusses on both new materials, such as quantum dots, for photo-carrier generation, as well as new architecture of these modules, that allow us to leverage geometrical properties for improved performances.
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Cooperative magnetism: While typically a bulk magnetic material starts out paramagnetic at high temperatures, at a sufficiently low temperature they exhibit a long-range ordered phase which is either ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic. Some special materials are unable to settle into such states no matter how low a temperature they are cooled to, as a result of competing interactions originating from their crystal structure. These magnetic materials are called 'frustrated' owing to their inability to acheive a specific ground state. We are investigating the origin of frusttation and the subsequent development of the frustrated phase using a combination of ultrafast and magneto-optical spectroscopies. |