Our lab's research is diverse, but a rough split would be between the scanning probe microscopy group and the compressed sensing group. Click on anything in the list below to learn more.
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Members involved: Andrew Osgood, Jun Zhang, Lili Wang
The nanomachines project focuses on the nanoscale properties of tailored nanomachines designed and synthesized by the Tour group. For example, Andrew has spent a great deal of effort determining whether or not C60-based nanocars can roll on a surface. Currently, we're focused on looking at different types of nanocars and nanotrucks. The latter have the ability to carry other molecules.
Jun is looking at different C60-based molecules, such as azofullerene molecules. These have shown to exhibit cis-trans conformational switching given different stimuli, and Jun is looking at these using some of the spectroscopic techniques available in our lab. He also has been investigating carborane-based nanocars, which offer the advantage of simpler synthesis relative to their C60 brethren.
Members involved: Raj Giridharagopal, Lili Wang
The polymer nanostructures work is centered on two
interesting conducting polymer systems- polydiacetylene nanowires and
C60-poly(3-hexylthiophene) heterojunctions. The latter is a common system for organic
photovoltaics, and work on that is just starting. The purpose of the C60-P3HT project is
to investigate interactions between small numbers of C60 molecules and P3HT in order to
truly get a "nanoscale" picture of the system. This would involve monolayers of P3HT and
small numbers of C60 molecules. More once this progresses further.
The first project, and the one with lots of interesting results so far, is on polydiacetylene nanowires. Polydiacetylene (PDA) is an older, simpler conducting polymer. A few years ago, workers in Belgium found that you could easily see individual polydiacetylene nanowires on a graphite surface. In 2001, Okawa and Aono reported in Nature that they could controllably form nanowires as needed on a well-ordered monolayer. We're investigating how these PDA nanowires behave on different surfaces. Does the substrate have a non-trivial effect on the nanowire electronic behavior? The answer is yes; our results are currently being prepared for submission. Also, an image of polydiacetylene was selected as the August 2007 RHK Image of the Month.
Members involved: JungHo Kang, Jun Zhang, Dharmpal Takhar
JK is currently investigating the highly controversial subject of inner-tube chirality in double-walled carbon nanotubes. He is also investigating chemically-modified graphene and soluble graphene in collaboration with the Billups Lab.
Jun and Dharmpal previously worked on nanotube-related projects. Dharmpal looked at fluorinated tubes using variable-temperature STM, while Jun investigated thiolated and thiophenated nanotubes. Both have publications in preparation on their respective projects.
Surface-Enhanced Raman Microscopy
Members involved: Albert Chang
Albert is currently pursuing research related to the surface-enhanced Raman properties of gold nanoparticles on gold films of varying thickness. Albert uses several imaging techniques to analyze this system, including AFM, NSOM, and confocal Raman microscopy. This project is in collaboration with the Halas lab.
Members involved: Dharmpal Takhar, Ting Sun, Jason Laska (Baraniuk Group), Marco Duarte (Baraniuk Group)
The single-pixel camera project focuses on using the new paradigm of "compressed sensing" to improve image acquisition techniques. More information on the way.
Members involved: Ting Sun, Dharmpal Takhar
Ting is currently working on new microscopy tools that take advantage of compressed sensing.