(152b) Electron Optics of Self-Assembled Nanocomposite Metamaterials

Actively enhanced opto-electronic coupling would fundamentally impact nanoscale systems for sustainable energy, synthetic biology, and biomedical theranostics.  Quantized photon-exciton coupling is the source of electron-hole pairs in semiconductor photovoltaics,induced charge transfer in ordered DNA chains, and distance-dependent Forster resonance energy transfer in spectroscopic molecular rulers.  Recent advances in our lab identify relative contributions of photon diffraction and quantized plasmon polarizabilities to extraordinary opto-electronic coupling in ordered metalloceramic nanocomposite metamaterials.  Metamaterials exhibit tunable electromagnetic functionality -- from simple iridescence in butterfly wings to radiofrequency cloaking -- due to coherent interference from multidimensional structuring of suitable condensed-matter composites.  Surface energy driven self-assembly of these metamaterials has been demonstrated in our lab by electroless nanosphere synthesis on nanolithographed anti-gecko lattices.  We showed that by modulating nanoscale photodynamic, hydraulic, and redox potentials, ionic precursors can be directed to nucleate into various nanostructured isoforms including spheres, island films, and clusters in ceramic and polymeric substrates. Energy dissipation from metamaterials via interaction with lattice phonons can induce predictable optoplasmonic profiles and phase changes in nanocomposites to drive microscale fractionation of 2^nd generation biofuels.  Microspectroscopies (x-ray photoelectron; transmission UV; and Raman) and electron/optical microscopies are critical to evaluate such effects. These advances in modeling, fabrication, characterization, and systems integration are important milestones toward integrating electromagnetically active nanocomposite metamaterials for next-generation energy harvesting, molecular engineering, disease diagnosis, and personalized therapies.