Reinhard Receives DOE Funding to Develop Optoplasmonic Materials
The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering is funding the Reinhard Laboratory to develop “New Optoplasmonic Materials for Next Generation Energy Systems” (Award No. DE-SCOO10679). The 3-year project addresses key challenges in energy related systems.
Current photovoltaic materials offer limited conversion rates across the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Optoplasmonic materials with custom tailored optical responses that can localize, enhance, and transfer the incident light with high spatial control could improve the light conversion efficiency across the entire visible range and beyond. In addit
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processing in optoplasmonic materials offers a completely new approach for addressing interconnect delays in next generation optoelectronic devices.
The specific aims of Prof. Bjoern Reinhard and his group are to develop discrete hybrid optoplasmonic “molecules” for light trapping, guiding, and (de)multiplexing, as well as to design and characterize 2-dimensional optoplasmonic arrays for light trapping and radiative emission engineering.