1-Plasmonic recipe for generating gain without population inversion in quantum dots http://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0957-4484/labtalk/article/44372 Conventionally, generation of optical gain in quantum dots, like many other materials, requires population inversion. Now, a recent investigation at the University of Alabama in Huntsville has shown that plasmons can offer a novel way to generate optical gain in such nanocrystals without any need for population inversion. Such a gain is a molecular (collective) process formed when the combined system of a quantum dot and a metallic nanoparticle acts like a molecule (meta-molecule) with its own characteristic states. ![]() Linear response of a QD-MNP systems driven by laser system 2-Energy nanogates: taming energy transfer using quantum mechanics rules http://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0953-8984/labtalk/article/47718 Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) processes can be controlled quantum mechanically in nanoparticle systems, as researchers from the University of Alabama in Huntsville report. ![]() (a) Normalized energy transfer rate
(energy transfer rate from a QD to a MNP times the exciton population in the QD). (b) The energy
dissipation rate of the metallic nanoparticle in the presence (dashed
line) and absence of the QD. 3-Thin Films Make Certain QDs Glow Brighterhttp://www.photonics.com/Article.aspx?PID=5&VID=116&IID=790&Tag=Tech+Pulse&AID=56684 HUNTSVILLE, Ala., and NORMAN, Okla., Sept. 16, 2014 — Using thin-film metal oxide substrates for quantum dots could turn them into more efficient light emitters. Photonics Spectra, Issue 12 (December) | Volume 48 (2014) 4-Making Quantum Dots Glow Brighter (American Institute of Physics news): Ultrathin layers of metal oxides can change the way quantum dots behave, in some cases turning them into more efficient light emitters ![]() 5-Quantum dots adapted to glow more brightly (optics.org): http://optics.org/news/5/9/33 6-Journal of Applied Physics cover http://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.4998182 S.M. Sadeghi, W. Wing, R. Gutha, C. Sharp, and Ali Hatef, " Optically saturated and unsaturated collective resonances of flat metallic nanoantenna arrays" Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 122, 063102(2017) |