WFU Physics Colloquium

TITLE: Nanoscale Confocal Microscopy and Spectroscopy: Development and Applications

SPEAKER: Professor Jeongyong Kim ,

TIME: Thursday October 30, 2008 at 4:00 PM

PLACE: Room 101 in Olin Physical Laboratory

In this colloquium, I will present some of applications of laser confocal microscopy (LCM) in studying nanomaterials, especially nanotubes and nanowires made of conjugated polymers and ZnO. High resolution LCM imaging and spectroscopy of single strands of polymer nanotubes enabled us to obtain local Raman spectra and observe an extraordinary enhancement of photoluminescence emission due to the excitation of surface plasmons. We developed and used an AFM/LCM combined microscope to study an optical waveguiding of ZnO/quantum dot hybrid systems. I will also discuss the use of cylindrically symmetric polarization for input illumination of LCM which can improve the lateral resolution of LCM down to 100 nm range.