Experimental Condensed Matter Physics – ECM
https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/research-groups/ecm/
UA-ECM’s world-class expertise is pivotal to ensure the success of the tasks for the design and characterisation of organic non-linear optics molecules and single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) based nanohybrid building blocks, which will be incorporated into polymer materials as active second harmonic generation component in optical fibres. UA-ECM will also develop separation methods for single-chirality SWCNTs, which are matched to the wavelengths used for fibre-based optical sensing. The group will essentially contribute to all tasks pertaining to the research and implementation of SWCNTs in CHARMING.
Prof. Sofie Cambré
Prof. Wim Wenseleers
Dr. Stein van Bezouw
By encapsulating nonlinear-optical molecules (which typically have large electric dipole moments) inside carbon nanotubes, UA was able to align the molecules all in the same sense, such that their responses add up coherently and yield a huge cooperative enhancement of the nonlinear optical properties. These nonlinear optical properties of molecules and nano-hybrids will be used in this project to develop new optical materials and actual devices for bio-medical imaging.
UA hosts a range of advanced optical/laser-spectroscopic techniques, including a worldwide unique setup for second harmonic light scattering spectroscopy (hyper-Rayleigh scattering, HRS) using a picosecond pulsed, amplified laser system with widely tuneable wavelength, to investigate the nonlinear optical properties of organic molecules and organic/carbon-nanotube hybrids.
UA also has a long-standing expertise in the solubilisation, processing, and structure-sorting of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). While all made of a single atomic layer of carbon atoms (forming a cylinder), the electronic and optical properties of CNTs vary dramatically depending on the exact diameter and chiral structure of the nanotube. After solubilisation using bile salt surfactants, these different structures can be separated by density gradient ultracentrifugation at centrifugal accelerations up to 1000000g, or by aqueous two-phase separation techniques. In this way the nanotubes can be selected with the ideal diameter for obtaining the above-mentioned single-row alignment of nonlinear-optical molecules.