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Welcome to the Nanophotonics Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder. 

We study the fundamental mechanisms of light-matter interaction, engineer them in photonic structures and develop novel photonic devices based on them. Examples of photonic structures include plasmonic nanostructures, photonic crystals, metamaterials and metasurfaces and high-Q resonators. We conduct extensive theoretical modeling studies, synthesis and fabrication of nanostructures and spectroscopy and microscopy to demonstrate novel optical phenomena. Targeted applications include nonlinear and quantum optical devices, energy harvesting devices, biomedical imaging and nano-medicine approach for cancer treatment.

If you are interested in our research, you may contact Prof. Won Park.

 

Plasmon enhanced field

Enhanced optical field

Surface plasmon resonance supported by metal nanostructure enhances local field and consequently a variety of optical processes.

Silver nanograting

Silver nanograting

Silver nanograting has been used to enhance luminescence upconversion process.

Wedge resonator mode

Wedge resonator mode

Wedge resonator supports optical modes with high quality factor.

Wedge resonator

Wedge resonator

Chalogonide-silica hybrid wedge resonator allows high quality modes with enhanced control.

Disk resonator

Disk resonator

Chalcogenide disk resonator with extremely smooth edges for high quality optical modes.

MIM structure

Enhanced upconversion in MIM

Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) design enables over 1000-fold enhancement of luminescence upconversion.

MIM

MIM fabrication

Novel fabrication process was developed to produce high quality MIM structure for strong upconversion enhancement.

nano-EGFR

Gold nanorod bioconjugate

Gold nanorod is conjugated with antibody for cancer targeting.

AuNS-UCNP

AuNS-UCNP cluster

Gold nanostar (AuNS) is coupled with upconversion nanoparticle (UCNP) for imaging and cancer treatment.

UNCP imaging

Upconversion imaging

Upconversion nanoparticle conjugated with antibody was used for targeted cancer cell imaging.

Animal model

Animal study

Bladder cancer treatment using conjugated nanoparticles using mouse model.