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!
What is a typical day like for a researcher in our group? Check out our videos to learn more about our science and our culture. If you like what you see and want to join our team, please send us your resume. We're always on the lookout for smart, creative people.
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| Group Video, June 2015 | Russian River Canoe Trip, July 2014 |
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| Upconversion | Nanoscale optical tomography |
Latest News
June 19: Fariah, Yang, and Jen attend the Noble Metal Nanoparticles Gordon Conference at Mount Holyoke College! The conference was a great mix of chemistry and plasmonics. Thanks to conference organizers Catherine Murphy and Stephan Link!
June 12: Alex, Tarun, and Diane graduate! At the Materials Science and Department ceremony, Tarun is awarded the Robert W. Huggins award, and Jen wins the Tau Beta Pi teaching award! Everyone enjoyed a pool party after commencement to celebrate the graduates. 
June 10: The D-Lab celebrates the end of spring quarter with a hike at Stinson Beach!
June 9: Michael, Justin, and Guru represent the D-Lab in the Fundamentals of Light Matter Interactions symposium at CLEO in San Jose!
May 27: Hadiseh and Brian's paper on multiplexing with PT-symmetric coaxial waveguides is published in Physical Review B! Article
May 24: Diane successfully defends her thesis, "Better Together: Composite Nanomaterials for Improving Upconversion and Dynamically Tunable Refractive Indices." Congratulations, soon-to-be Dr. Wu!
April 20: The D-Lab hits all the high notes at karaoke to celebrate Tarun's last night in California! Read more on our blog. Good luck in your new post-doc position at University of Maryland, Dr. Tarun!
April 18: Tarun and Andrea's paper on imaging intercalation in palladium nanoparticles with sub-particle resolution is published in Nature Materials! Article
April 16: Jen is awarded the 2016 Nano Letters Young Investigator Lectureship!
April 1: Not an April Fool's Joke - Michelle and Katherine are awarded the NDSEG Fellowship!
March 29: Katherine, Tyler, and Alex are awarded the NSF Graduate Fellowship!
March 18: Alice wins a Poster Session Award for the Stanford Bio-X IIP Symposium on February 17. Congratulations, Alice!
March 10: Tarun successfully defends his thesis, "Visualizing energy-relevant phase transformations within individual PdH nanoparticles." Congratulations, soon-to-be Dr. Narayan!
February 24: Michelle, Alex, Fariah, Alice run demos at the "Light, Photonics, Fun!" mother-daughter event hosted by Women in Photonics at the Sunnyvale Library. Thanks for the invitation, Priya! We had so much fun!
February 23: Yang's paper on enantioselective optical trapping is published in ACS Photonics! Article
February 16: Randy Mehlenbacher joins our lab as postdoctoral scholar. Welcome, Randy!
February 5: Justin's paper on CMOS-compatible plasmonic titanium nitride is published in Applied Physics Letters! Article
January 4-8: Snowbird, here we come! Jen represents the D-Lab's work at the PQE conference. Thanks, Peter Nordlander and Naomi Halas for the invitation and all science buddies for a great time skiing/snowshoeing!
December 4: Jen presents at the Boston University Photonics Symposium, organized by Bjorn Reinhard. Thanks, Bjorn for leading a great symposium!!
December 1-3: Fall MRS is in full swing! Jen presents an invited talk in the "Plasmonic Nanomaterials for Energy Conversion" symposium, led by Congjun Wang.
November 18-20: D-Lab Bootcamp is in full swing, with Team "Dino-Mite" led by Alice, Team "Party-time symmetry" led by Brian, Team "David Bowie And The Teen TitaNs" led by Justin, Team "Stop and Go with the Flow" led by Amr, and Team UC/sensitized emissions led by Michael. Congratulations to Justin and his team for winning "best bootcamp" 0f 2015!
November 5: Brian represents the D-Lab at the Rethink Disruption Conference in SF!
November 2-3: Jen presented seminars at the University of Chicago and Northwestern. Thank you, Norbert Scherer, Mark Hersam, David Dunand, and Mike Bedzyk for organizing my visits!
October 21: Jen, with Prof. Harald Geissen and Prof. Luis Liz-Marzan delivered an ACS Photonics Webinar on the "past, present, and future of photonics and plasmonics." Thank you Carlos, Harry, and Teri for the opportunity!
October 20: Jen gave an invited talk at AVS San Jose. Thank you, Wei David Wei for the invitation!
October 17: Congratulations to Yang Zhao on winning the Carl Anderson Division of Laser Science Award from APS!
October 16: Jen is one of six plenary speakers at the third LAST Festival. Thanks, Piero, for organizing a great art/science/technology rendezvous!
September 17: Jen helped welcome new students to Stanford with her "Engaging with Faculty" talk: Global Challenges, Nanoscale Solutions. Wishing all first-years a blast on the farm!
September 15: Jen presented at the World Materials Research Forum in Livermore, CA. Thanks, Dr. Robert Maxwell for the invitation!
September 9-11: Jen and Luke Sweatlock organized the "Optical and Mechanical Metamaterials" symposium for the National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering meeting. Thanks to Sasha, Andrea, Chris, and Julia for giving outstanding talks!
September 3-4: Diane, Michael, Katherine, Guru, and Jen head to Caltech for the DOE-EFRC LMI meeting. Check out Michael's blog post here!
August 26: Jen presented her experiences pursuing a career in academia to SOE students and postdocs in the Career Development Center. Thanks, Lance, for the invitation.
August 24, 2015: The D-Lab teaches a module on Materials Science and Engineering to SSEA students. Thanks Diane, Yang, Brian, Amr, and Vladan for serving as TAs!
August 16-18, 2015: Jen delivered an invited talk on Tarun and Andrea's work at ACS Boston. Thank you, Grant Johnson, for the invitation!
August 11-13, 2015: The D-Lab explores bioluminescence in Pt. Reyes!
August 4-7, 2015: Amr, Hadiseh, D-Lab alum Aitzol, and Jen present at this year's Meta Conference in NYC. Thanks, Jake and Luat for the invitation!
July 17, 2015: Jen teaches high-school students about new optical methods to sort enantiomers, trap proteins, and treat cancer at this year's Stanford Youth Medical Science Program.
June 27, 2015: Jen is featured on Heidi Norton's blog, Beta Pleated Chic. See the article here!
June 14, 2015: Ashwin, Jon, Hadiseh, and Amr graduate!!! CONGRATULATIONS! The D-Lab is so proud of you!
June 5, 2015: Hadiseh's paper on controlling electric, magnetic, and chiral dipolar emission is published in Physical Review B! Article
May 29-31, 2015: Alice, Yang, and Jen participate in the Foresight workshop on "atomic Scale Precision for Medicine."
May 19, 2015: Jen presents on the D-Lab's work at the IEEE SFBA Nanotechnology Council Symposium "The promise and progress of Nanophotonics"
May 11, 2015: Jen's work is featured by Sam Scott in Stanford Magazine! Thank you Sam for a great article! The Improbable World of Jennifer Dionne: How one young professor is bending light and making the invisible visible.
May 11, 2015: Amr successfully defends his thesis: "Toward direct optical manipulation of nanoscale specimens with coaxial plasmonic tweezers"! Congratulations, soon-to-be Dr. Saleh! See his presentation here!
May 1, 2015: Jen is awarded a Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. Thank you, Dreyfus Foundation!
Featured Research
I. Nano-optical tomography:
In collaboration with Albert Polman's group, Ashwin has developed a new technique to visualize the optical properties of materials in 3D with nanometer-scale resolution. The technique, called "Cathodoluminescence tomography" could be used to precisely locate radiative recombination centers in light emitting diodes, to probe the nanoscale distribution of defect states in organic photovoltaics, and to potentially provide new label-free avenues for biological imaging. This work is featured as the May 2015 cover of Nature Nanotechnology!
II. Upconverters Under Pressure:
In a recent Nano Letters paper, Michael and Diane have improved the upconversion efficiency of near-infrared upconverters, using pressures nearing those found in the Earth's core to compress nanomaterials. Their results indicate that only 1% change in lattice parameter is necessary to improve upconverter efficiencies, suggesting chemical synthetic approaches to the ideal lattice structure.
III. A nanoscale absorber-amplifier:
In a recent Applied Physics Letters paper, Brian and Hadiseh have shown that a nanoscale resonator can act as either an absorber or an amplifier of light, depending on the phase of the input signal. Their design may pave the way for deeply subwavelength, all-optical modulators.
IV. 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.
