Date: Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Time: 11:00 am
Talk Title: Nanoparticles within intense beams: Manipulation and modification
Zoom Recording
Abstract:
When a colloidal nanoparticle is illuminated by an intense laser beam the system is driven to a extreme situation. A plethora of super-interesting and super-useful phenomena could take place including photon-induced transformation of nanoparticles or appearance of intense optical forces due to photon-nanoparticle momentum inter-exchange. I this talk I will illustrate these phenomena by two examples. I will show how it is possible to fabricate super-bright infrared dots by irradiating “normal dots” with ultra-intense laser pulses. I will explain the basis of the dot-to-superdot transformation and I will provide some examples to illustrate the great potential of these super-dots for in vivo imaging and sensing (including real time thermal monitoring of liver infection). As a second example I will show how it is possible to trap and manipulate upconverting nanoparticles by using optical forces. I will discuss on the actual origin of these forces and I will show some breaking applications such as intracellular sensing or laser refrigeration of liquids.
Biography:
Daniel Jaque obtained his “Certificate in Physics” by the Sussex University (UK) in 1995, being incorporated at that time into Prof. Peter Townsend’s research group working on the optical properties of ion-implanted waveguides fabricated in nonlinear crystals. In 1996 he started his Ph.D thesis at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) within Prof. García-Sole´s group. In 1999 he successfully defended his Ph.D Thesis entitled “The NYAB: a red, green and blue solid state laser”. Then he moved to the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) as an assistant professor. As a member of Prof. J.L. Vicent´s group, he devoted two years to studying of the properties (optical and magnetic) of nano-structured magnetic thin films as well as to analysing vortex dynamics in nano-structured superconducting thin films. In 2001 he moved back to UAM and rejoined the Laser Spectroscopy group. During the following two years he was involved in the study of novel systems showing intrinsic optical bistability based either on ferroelectric transitions or in nonlinear pump induced heating processes.
In 2006 he was awarded with the “Young Researcher Award” by the European Association for the Study of Rare Earths and Actanides. That same year he moved his research interest towards the micro/nano structuration of optical materials by ultrafast laser inscription covering not only practical aspects but also fundamental ones. Indeed, he has been a pioneer in the application of confocal fluorescence imaging techniques for the understanding of the light-matter interaction at the femtosecond time scale. The know-how acquired on confocal fluorescence imaging techniques has allowed him to face new research areas such as fluorescence imaging of living cancer cells and small animals for diagnosis and optically controlled treatments.
