Welcome! We are the research group of Jen Dionne, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. We are a diverse team of materials scientists, electrical engineers, applied physicists, and chemists researching the design and development of new materials that allow light to be controlled in ways previously thought impossible. We then use these materials to directly visualize, probe, and control nanoscale systems and phenomena - particularly those relevant to energy and biology.
We aim to address questions such as: Can optical microscopy achieve a resolution comparable to electron microscopy, to study nanoscale systems in-situ and in real-time? Can sub-bandgap photons be efficiently harvested in solar cells, to improve solar energy conversion efficiencies? Can catalytic processes be probed on the single particle or molecule level, to understand and improve catalytic reactions? And, can proteins or small molecules be optically trapped and manipulated in-vivo, to directly probe molecular mechanics and interactions in cells? Though seemingly diverse, these questions all require precise control of optical interactions, as enabled by new optical materials.
Please feel free to navigate this site or contact us for more information!
Latest News
September 14: The D-Lab hits the waters on a lake trip and welcomes its newest member, Marcus Minh Dionne Vu.
September 7: Andrea and Tarun's paper on PdH nanoparticle phase transitions is published in Nature Materials!
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Stanford Press Release
September 2: Jon presented an invited talk at NFO, Salt Lake City, on quantum plasmonic metamaterials.
August 25: Jen and Alex Weber-Bargioni co-chaired a session on Nanophotonics at the annual LBL User Meeting. Thanks to all speakers for making the session a success!
August 13: Jen presented an invited talk at ACS San Francisco, highlighting Andrea and Tarun's in-situ TEM work. Thank you, Jill Millstone for the invitation!
July 18: Jen presented an invited seminar at the University of Oregon. Thank you, Shannon Boettcher, for organizing a terrific visit to Eugene!
July 9-14: Jen presented a series of lectures to RISE and SMYSP summer high-school interns at Stanford on nanooptics, solar energy, and medical treatments. Good luck in lab, RISE and SMYSP participants!
July 11: The D-Lab makes a splash on a float trip down Russian River. Check out Ashwin's video here:
No Summertime Sadness!
June 24: The LMI-EFRC on light-matter interactions for improved solar energy is renewed! The D-Lab is very excited to be a part of this renewal, bringing together researchers from Caltech, Berkeley, Harvard, UIUC, and Stanford.
June 7: Jen, Alice, Brian, and Guru shared the group's work at the first LAST (Life Art Science Technology) festival organized by Piero Scaruffi, alongside notable luminaries including Alvy Ray Smith, Co-founder of Pixar, Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google, Daniel Kaufman, Director of the Information Innovation Office at DARPA, and Chris McKay, Chief Planetary Scientist at NASA Ames. Thank you, Piero, for organizing a stimulating festival!
June 4: Andrea delivered an invited talk on plasmon catalysis at the Canadian Chemistry Conference in Vancouver. Thank you, Ian Burgess, for organizing the symposium!
June 3: Ashwin delivered an invited talk on cathodoluminescence tomography at the first annual Electron Beam Spectroscopy workshop in Amsterdam. Thank you, Albert Polman and Javier Garcia Abajo for organizing this workshop!
May 27: Aitzol globe-trotted to Singapore and Australia, presenting two invited talks at Meta 2014 on non-Hermitian nano photonics and nanoantenna-enhanced CD spectroscopy, and another colloquium at Macquarie University on PT nanoantennas. His science has gone global!
May 21 : Jen presented the group's work at the SunShot summit in Anaheim, CA. Thank you, DOE for organizing an enriching workshop and review!
April 23 : Jon wins the MRS Gold Student award for his work on Quantum Plasmonic Materials and Metamaterials! Is that a smile we see during the ceremony? Congratulations Jon!! 
April 22 : MRS week is upon us! Jen delivered the opening invited talk in the 'Emerging Nanophotonic Materials and Devices' symposium, while Brian, Jon, Ashwin, Hadiseh, Tarun, Michael, and Diane shared the group's research on up conversion, non-Hermitian nanophotonics, quantum plasmonics, and nano-optical tomography in talks and posters throughout the week.
April 17 : Jen presented at the Berkeley Materials Science seminar. Thank you, Jie Yao and Mark Asta, for organizing my visit! Go bears!
April 14 : The D-Lab is awarded a PECASE! Jen got to tour the White House and meet President Obama! Thank you, DOD and NSF for the nomination!
Featured Research
I. Investigating single-particle intercalation-driven phase transitions:
Andrea, Tarun, and Ai Leen have revealed the thermodynamics of PdH phase transitions in single nanocrystals, using in-situ transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy. Their results reveal that individual particles are characterized by sharp isotherms, and that surface energy effects dictate the loading pressure. Their results are published in the latest issue of Nature Materials, and could impact design of next-generation energy storage materials.
II. Parity-time-symmetric metamaterials:
Inspired by insights from quantum mechanics, Hadiseh Alaeian has designed a new "parity-time-symmetric" plasmonic metamaterial that exhibits highly unusual unidirectional refraction, reflection and transmission coefficients that are both simultaneously greater than unity, and photonic Bloch power oscillations. This new metamaterial could be used to design lossless "perfect lenses" for optical imaging well below the diffraction limit of light, and well as unidirectional invisibility cloaks and new non-reciprocal nanophotonic devices. Her results are published in two articles, now available in Physical Review.
III. A Metafluid exhibiting strong optical magnetism:
In a recent Nano Letters, Sassan Sheikholeslami, Hadiseh Alaeian, and Ai Leen Koh describe protein-directed synthesis of a metamaterial fluid. The fluid exhibits an emergent magnetic response at visible frequencies, despite being composed of entirely non-magnetic building blocks. Their metafluid could enable new liquid-based tunable refractive index media with positive, negative, and near-zero refractive indices.
