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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 Brighter
http://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
https://publishing.aip.org/publishing/journal-highlights/making-quantum-dots-glow-brighter
5-Quantum dots adapted to glow more brightly (optics.org):
6-Journal of Applied Physics cover
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)