Welcome! We are the research group of Jen Dionne, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. We are a diverse team of materials scientists, chemists, applied physicists, electrical engineers, chemical engineers, bioengineers and mechanical engineers, researching new ways to control light-matter interactions.
We imagine a world where diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's and tuberculosis are detected and cured with light; where solar cells provide abundant clean energy; and where cell phones compute at the speed of light. We then strive to make that future a reality through development of new nanophotonic materials, methods, and devices.
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
January 15: Stanford Engineering features the Catalyst group's work on developing a new process for rapidly and sensitively detecting bacteria! Article
January 7: Jen presents at Physics of Quantum Electronics Colloquium, PQE-2020, in Snowbird, Utah.
December 5: Jen presents at the Molecular Frontiers Meeting, Light at the Nanoscale at Chalmers University of Technology.
December 3: David receives a Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award. Congratulations David!
November 27: Claire receives a Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute Interdisciplinary Scholar Award. Congratulations Claire!
November 20: Jen gives a colloquium talk for the Physics Department at Washington University in St. Louis. Thank you Mike Ogilvie for the invitation!
November 13: Congratulations to Jack on the publication of "High Quality Factor Dielectric Metasurfaces for Ultraviolet Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy" in ACS Photonics!
November 12: Congratulations to Fariah Hayee for successfully defending her thesis! 
October 31: Lisa is named a L'Oreal 2019 for Women in Science Fellow. Congratulations Lisa! See the press release and video.
October 30: Loza attends the Annual Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Meeting in Ethiopia. Congratulations Loza !
October 30: Congratulations to Shing Shing on the publication of "Rapid identification of pathogenic bacteria using Raman spectroscopy and deep learning" in Nature Communications!
October 15: Loza receives the Biomedical Engineering Society's Career Development Award and presents her work on bacterial diagnostics at the annual meeting in Philadelphia. Congratulations Loza!
October 8: Congratulations to Chris on the publication of "Sub-20 nm Core–Shell–Shell Nanoparticles for Bright Upconversion and Enhanced Förster Resonant Energy Transfer" in the Journal of the American Chemical Society!
October 1: Jen receives a NIH Director's New Innovator Award funded through its High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program! See the press release here and here
September 28: Jen presents at the NAS' Frontiers of Science, 2nd Japanese-American-German Symposium in Kyoto.
September 27: Congratulations to Alan for his collaborative paper with the groups of Prof. Stephan Link and Prof. Christy Landes at Rice, "Unraveling the Origin of Chirality from Plasmonic Nanoparticle-protein Complexes" now published in Science!
September 26: Loza and other engineering graduate students return from a trip to Ethiopia where they taught local college students about science research and educational opportunities. See the press release here.
September 3: Congratulations to Lisa on her paper, “Optical Helicity and Optical Chirality in Free Space and in the Presence of Matter,” now published in Symmetry!
Featured Research
I. High quality factor dielectric metasurfaces for ultraviolet circular dichroism spectroscopy:
Jack and Mark designed high quality factor metasurfaces to enhance chiral light matter interactions in the ultraviolet. Their research, published in ACS Photonics, utilizes asymmetric metasurfaces that strongly concentrate twisted light and enhance the chiral absorption of small molecules. This work paves the way for ultrasensitive chiral-optical spectroscopies and efficient light mediated enantiomer separation.
II. Rapid identification of pathogenic bacteria using Raman spectroscopy and deep learning:
Shing-Shing and Amr, in collaboration with team-members from computer science and pathology, use Raman spectroscopy combined with machine learning to enable accurate classification of pathogenic bacteria. Their research, published in Nature Communications, amassed the largest bacterial cell Raman dataset to date, spanning the 30 species most commonly seen as the cause of bloodstream infection and representing the majority of infections in intensive care units worldwide. Their research lays a foundation for fast and tailored bacterial identification and antibiotic treatment.
III. Sub-20 nm Core–Shell–Shell Nanoparticles for Bright Upconversion and Enhanced Förster Resonant Energy Transfer:
