Under IREE support, we have established a collaboration with the MOSAIC group at the Institut Fresnel, in Marseille, France. The collaboration centers around photophysical properties of metal nanocavities. The PI spent a total of four weeks in France (mostly in Marseille, with a few days in Grenoble) while Mr. Mahdavi spent just over 14 weeks. The primary focus of Mr. Mahdavi's PhD studies is the computational analysis of light propagation through sub-wavelength nanocavities. While in Marseille, he was able to participate in experimental studies of light transmission and single-molecule fluorescence through nanocavities; these studies provide experimental results with which to compare simulation. One important result in particular is the observation of a 12x fluorescence enhancement in a gold nanocavity, compared to a factor of 6.5 in an aluminum nanocavity. Simulation results are consistent with this observation. Further experimental results were obtained with different nanocavity shapes and relevant computational studies are underway. As a result of these efforts, we anticipate submitting one or more papers combining experimental and computational results. We have begun studies of energy transfer within nanocavities; these studies will continue beyond the duration of the IREE award. We also anticipate that further researcher exchange between the two groups will occur in the future.

Steve Blair received the BS and MS degrees from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1991 and 1993, respectively, and the PhD degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1998. In 1998, he started as an Assistant Professor with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Since 2005, he has been an Associate Professor. Prof. Blair's research interests include slow-light nonlinear optics, plasmonics, photonic microsystems, and microarray technology.

Farhad Mahdavi received the B.S. degree from Sharif University, Tehran, Iran, in 1986, and the M.E. degree from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, in 2004. Since 2004, he has been a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical Engineering at the University of Utah. His research interests are plasmonics and light transport via photonic nanostructures.

Jérôme Wenger qualified from the Engineering School of Optics 'SupOptique' in 2001, and received the PhD degree in 2004 at the Institut d'Optique (Orsay- France). During his PhD, he studied quantum optics, performing new experiments on quantum cryptography and quantum communication. He then joined the MOSAIC team at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille, first as a postdoc before getting a permanent position as CNRS junior researcher in 2005. He is presently working on nanophotonics and biophotonics, developing new set-ups to enhance the optical contrast in microscopy.

Davy Gérard received his Ph.D. degree in 2004 at the Université de Bourgogne (Dijon, France). His work there was devoted to the study of optical properties of photonic and plasmonic crystals. In the following years he kept working on nanophotonics, first at the Institut d'Electronique Fondamentale (Orsay - France) and then at the Université de Franche-Comté (Besançon, France). He is now part of the Fresnel Institute, working on single-molecule fluorescence in nanoapertures.

NSF ECCS-637121

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Steve Blair, Farhad Mahdavi, Jérôme Wenger and Davy Gérard, "Integrated-Optic Nanoparticle Biosensor Arrays", Trip report presented at the NSF IREE 2007 Grantees Conference, October 30 - November 1, 2007, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

• (2009), "Integrated-Optic Nanoparticle Biosensor Arrays," http://globalhub.org/resources/897.

1. France 5
2. iree 2007 109
3. trip report 221