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Theoretical Nanophotonics at Rice University

We are a theoretical group performing research in the field of nanophotonics and plasmonics. We use a wide range of numerical methods (FDTD, FEM, BEM, DDA, Mie Theory, [TD]DFT) to investigate the optical properties of metallic, semiconductor, and graphene nanostructures, plasmonic, excitonic, and hybrid systems.

News:

We are now searching to fill two postdoctoral openings in theoretical nanophotonics!  Please find details here or email nordland@rice.edu.

• Peter Nordlander and Naomi Halas win the Eni Energy Transition Award!

New Publications:

May.27 - Optica. "SCREEN: SCatteREr ENabled optical asymmetry." Yongyi Zhao, Sean M. Farrell, Christian R. Jacobson, et al.

May.14 - Nature Water. "Resonant energy transfer for membrane-free, off-grid solar thermal humidification-dehumidification desalination." William Schmid, Aleida Machorro-Ortiz, Qian Ye, et al.

May.8 - PNAS 2025 May 8. "In silico machine learning-enabled detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from contaminated soil." Yilong Ju, Oara Neumann, Sara B. Denison, et al.

Apr.21 - ACS Nano, 2025 April 21. "2D Plasmonic Photocatalyst Enables Highly Efficient Hot-Electron-Mediated Surface Reactions under Red Light Irradiation." Yaxi Gan, Ataollah Kalantari Osgouei, Alexander Ahrens, et al.

Mar.17 - Nat. Commun. 2025 March 17. "The dynamics of plasmon-induced hot carrier creation in colloidal gold." Anna Wach, Robert Bericat-Vadell, Camila Bacellar, et al.

Feb.10 - PNAS, 2025 February 10. "Machine learning-enhanced surface-enhanced spectroscopic detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the human placenta." Oara Neumann, Yilong Ju, Andres B. Sanchez-Alvarado, et al.

Feb.3 - Nano Lett., 2025 February 3. "Spatially Controlled Growth of Ultrathin MoO2 Polymorphs by Physical Vapor Deposition." Jacob Elkins, Sathvik Ajay Iyengar, Ojasvi Verma, et al.

Jan.14 - Adv. Opt. Mater., 2025 January 14. "The Influence of the Supporting Substrate on Single-Particle Circular Differential Scattering of DNA Assembled Nanorod Dimers." Amrita Chakraborty, Ojasvi Verma, Gopal Narmada Naidu, et al.

Dec.23 - Chem. Soc. Rev., 2024 December 23. "Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy: a half-century historical perspective." Jun Yi, En-Ming You, Ren Hu, et al.

Dec.2 - ACS Energy Lett., 2024 December 02. "Light-Driven Dehydrogenation of Propane Using Plasmonic Al@TiO2 Core-Shell Nanoparticles with Pt Single Atoms and Clusters." Parmeet Dhindsa, Silvia Marino, Alexander Ahrens, et al.

Nov.1 - Nat. Catal., 2024 November 01. "Steam methane reforming using a regenerable antenna-reactor plasmonic photocatalyst." Yigao Yuan, Jingyi Zhou, Aaron Bayles, et al.

Oct.14 - ACS Nano, 2024 October 14. "Impact of Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy in Catalysis." Andrei Stefancu, Javier Aizpurua, Ivano Alessandri, et al.

July.15 - Nature Physics, 2024 July 15. "Electronic excitations at the plasmon-molecule interface." Andrei Stefancu, Naomi J. Halas, Peter Nordlander, and Emiliano Cortes.

July.11 - ACS Nano, 2024 July 11. "Quantifying Ultrafast Energy Transfer from Plasmonic Hot Carriers for Pulsed Photocatalysis on Nanostructures." Andrea Schirato, Stephen Keith Sanders, Remo Proietti Zaccaria, et al.

Jun.26 - ACS Photonics, 2024 June 26. "Routes to Optimizing Photothermal Cancer Therapy through a Comprehensive Theoretical Model." Gopal Narmada Naidu, Yara Kadria-Vili, Oara Neumann, et al.