Dear all, I would like to invite you to my PhD final defense this coming Monday June 15, 2020 at 10 am. Please find below the link to the Zoom conference, the title and abstract of my talk. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85316164600?pwd=ODlzanpWTnZvSVFHQmh1OVNkWUJIdz09 Meeting ID: 853 1616 4600 Password: 8KsMhh Title: Plasmonics for Nanotechnology: Energy Harvesting and Memory Devices Abstract: The field of plasmonics deals with collective oscillation of free electrons in a metal coupled to electromagnetic waves. Such excitations are commonly referred to as surface plasmons and are characterized by large wavevectors and high electromagnetic field intensity in nanoscale volumes. Researchers have studied plasmonics for numerous applications such as photocatalysis, local heating, optical modulators, lasing, nonlinear optics, ultrabright quantum emitters and many more. My research work investigates the role of plasmonics for two such applications: solar energy harvesting for photocataytic water splitting to produce hydrogen fuel and energy efficient magnetic switching with femtosecond (fs) laser pulses. Magnetic memory devices for information storage have been around us for quite some time. The field of spintronics deals with magnetic memory switching through methods like spin-orbit torque and spin transfer torque. These methods are typically limited from nanosecond (ns) to 100 picosecond (ps) timescales. About two decades ago, it was shown that a single fs laser pulse can induce magnetization dynamics in ps timescales in magnetic films, thereby leading to the field all-optical switching. Through my research, I will show how plasmonics can be used to reduce the fs laser pulse intensity required for magnetic switching. Solar water splitting in a Photoelectrochemical cell with a Solar-to-Hydrogen conversion efficiency of 10% is believed to be a commercially viable approach to produce hydrogen as a green fuel. In my research, I have chosen α-Fe2O3 or hematite as the semiconductor/active material for solar energy harvesting. Despite many advantages, hematite suffers from drawbacks like low light absorption (so we use thicker films to absorb more) and low carrier mean-free path (need to use thinner films to avoid carrier recombination). As we see the two drawbacks of hematite have mutually exclusive solutions. I will show how plasmonic resonators can be designed to increase the solar energy collection in thin films of hematite and thereby address both the drawbacks with one solution Best, Aveek Dutta Graduate Research Assistant Birck Nanotechnology Center Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Purdue University