OttoLMuskens

News

June 2010: Sabine Abb, Claire Blejean, and Hannah Warren have started their summer studentships in the Integrated Nanophotonics group. Hannah is working on a bioimaging project funded by the EPSRC / Institute for Life Sciences. Claire measures light transport by nanowires, on a project funded by the School of Physics and Astonomy. Sabine goal is the synthesis and self assambly of nanoparticles for spectroscopic applications.

May 2010: Our work on plasmonic nanoantenna switches has been covered in a popular news item by NanotechWeb.

April 2010: The article 'Photoconductively loaded plasmonic nanoantenna as building block for ultracompact optical switches' by N. Large, M. Abb, J. Aizpurua, O. L. Muskens has been published in Nano Letters.

March 2010: The article 'Experimental studies on the mode structure of random lasers' by R. G. S. El-Dardiry, A. P. Mosk, O. L. Muskens, A. Lagendijk has been published in Physical Review A.

January 2010: The proposal 'Interfacing electronics and photonics on a single chip using plasmonic nanoantennas' has been funded in the University of Southampton's Adventure in Research grant scheme. This grant will provide a postdoc salary and clean room access.

December 2009: Otto Muskens' First Grant proposal 'A nonlinear plasmonic antenna switch as building block for ultracompact photonic devices' has been funded by the EPSRC. This grant will provide the group with a budget of £125,000 for setting up an experimental nanophotonics laboratory.

November 2009: Natascha Fairbairn has started her PhD research on the topic of single nanoparticle biosensing for use in live cell studies. The Integrated nanophotonics group now consists of 7 members.

October 2009: Southampton undergraduate students Nathan Langford, Paul Venn, Marcel Fowler and Scott Kneller have started their MPhys research projects in the group. Nathan and Paul are studying light transport in random media, Marcel and Scott are developing a new biosensing technique.

August 2009: A £15,000 Royal Society Research Grant has been awarded to Otto Muskens for a research project on single nanocrystal spectroscopy with the aim of improving light harvesting in next generation solar cells.

June 2009: A theoretical investigation of fluorescence enhancement by single metal nanoantennas, by Vincenzo Giannini, Jose Sanchez-Gil, Otto Muskens, and Jaime Gomez Rivas, has been published in the Journal of the Optical Society B.

June 2009: Martina Abb has started her PhD project in the Integrated Nanophotonics Group. Martina will work on integration of plasmonic components in silicon photonics.

April 2009: Southampton undergraduate students Hannah Warren and Alex Perevedentsev have obtained Summer Studentship grants from EPSRC and USRG. Hannah and Alex will participate for 10 weeks in experiments taking place in the Integrated Nanophotonics Group.

April 2009: Nature Photonics has covered our article on nanowire scattering in their Research Highlights, see pdf.

February 2009: In a publication appearing in Nano Letters, we show that nanowires are one of the strongest scattering materials available.

February 2009: Silke Diedenhofen's research on omnidirectional, antireflective nanowire layers was published in Advanced Materials, a popular review 'Moth eyes inspire more efficient solar cells' has appeared in Physics World.

January 2009: Starting from January 1st 2009, I am working as a Lecturer in the Quantum Light and Matter Group at the University of Southampton.

December 2008: Nano Today has highlighted our Nano Letters publication Design of light scattering in nanowire materials for photovoltaic applications in their December issue, see pdf.

November 2008: The article 'Optical extinction spectrum of a single metal nanoparticle: Quantitative characterization of a particle and of its local environment' by O. L. Muskens, P. Billaud, M. Broyer, N. Del Fatti, and F. Vallee has appeared in Phys. Rev. B.

July 2008: The article Design of light scattering in nanowire materials for photovoltaic applications by O.L. Muskens, J. Gómez Rivas, R.E. Algra, E.P.A.M. Bakkers, and A. Lagendijk, has been accepted for publication in Nano Letters.

May 2008: The article 'Strong enhancement of the radiative decay rate of emitters by single plasmonic nanoantennas' has reached the Hot Papers list of Nano Letters.

April 2008: Nanowires decorate the cover of Advanced Functional Materials

March 2008: Master student Ramy El Dardiry has obtained his degree cum laude on his thesis 'Spatial structure of random laser modes' at the University of Twente.

January 2008: The first article with Ad Lagendijk, 'Broadband enhanced backscattering spectroscopy of strongly scattering random media' has appeared in Optics Express. In this paper we present a new technique for characterizing strongly scattering random media over a large spectral range in the visible and near-infrared.