Near-field microscopy
Near-field microscopy is one of the most powerful techniques for the surface characterization at the nanoscale. This technique can reach resolutions of tens of nanometer, allowing us to study the light-matter interactions happening beyond the classical diffraction limit.
Nowadays, we are interested in the interactions between light and noble metals, as well as two-dimensional materials as MoS2.
Please contact us if you have any idea for collaborations.
- J. M. Merlo, N. T. Nesbitt, Y. M. Calm, A. H. Rose, L. D’Imperio, C. Yang, M. J. Burns, K. Kempa, M. J. Naughton, Wireless communication system via nanoscale plasmonic antennas. Scientific Reports 6, 31710 (2016). https://www.nature.com/articles/srep31710
- J. M. Merlo, F. Ye, B. Rizal, M. J. Burns, M. J. Naughton, Near-field observation of light propagation in nanocoax waveguides. Opt. Express 22, 14148-14154 (2014). https://www.osapublishing.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-22-12-14148&id=289502
Plasmonics
Plasmonics refers to the control and manipulation of surface plasmons polaritons (SPPs) -the cumulative oscillations of the conduction electrons in metals-. The most common metals used in plasmonics are Au, Ag, and Al.
We are interested in the interactions between SPPs and excitons generated in semiconductors, particularly in two-dimensional materials.
Please contact us if you have any idea for collaborations.
- Rose, J. Dunklin, H. Zhang, J. M. Merlo, J. van de Lagemaat, Plasmon-mediated coherent superposition of discrete excitons under strong exciton-plasmon coupling in few-layer MoS2 at room temperature. ACS Photonics7, 1129–1134 (2020). https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsphotonics.0c00233
- J. M. Merlo, N. T. Nesbitt, Y. M. Calm, A. H. Rose, L. D’Imperio, C. Yang, M. J. Burns, K. Kempa, M. J. Naughton, Wireless communication system via nanoscale plasmonic antennas. Scientific Reports 6, 31710 (2016). https://www.nature.com/articles/srep31710
- T. Nesbitt, J. M. Merlo, A. H. Rose, Y. M. Calm, K. Kempa, M. J. Burns, M. J. Naughton, Aluminum Nanowire Arrays via Directed Assembly. Nano Letters 15, 7294–7299 (2015). https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b02408
- J. M. Merlo, F. Ye, B. Rizal, M. J. Burns, M. J. Naughton, Leakage radiation microscope for observation of non-transparent samples. Opt. Express 22, 22895-22904 (2014). https://www.osapublishing.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-22-19-22895&id=301296
Topological phases of matter in classical systems
Topology is the study of the shapes and their invariants. It has been discovered that the energy bands in some materials can show protected topologies, meaning that such materials can present robustness against disorder in their lattice. Topological phases of matter where first demonstrated in quantum system. Recently, the topological phase transitions have been demonstrated in classical systems as acoustic, electromagnetic, and mechanical systems.
We are interested in the study of topological phase transitions in electromagnetic and mechanical systems.
Please contact us if you have any idea for collaborations.
- Luke Thatcher, Parker Fairfield, Lázaro Merlo-Ramírez and Juan M. Merlo, Experimental observation of topological phase transitions in a mechanical 1D-SSH model. Phys. Scr. 97, 035702 (2022). https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1402-4896/ac4ed2
- J. M. Merlo, X. Wu, K. Kempa, M. J. Naughton, All-optical logic gates based on anomalous Floquet photonic topological insulator structures. J. Opt. 23, 065001 (2021). https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2040-8986/abf8cd/meta
- S. Wu, F. Ye, J. M. Merlo, M. J. Naughton, K. Kempa, Topologically protected photonic edge states in the visible in plasmo-gyroelectric metamaterials. Adv. Opt. Mat. 1800119 (2018). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adom.201800119
Science books for kids
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