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, and mechanical engineers.
Through the design of new optical materials and microscopies, we observe chemical and biological processes as they unfold with nanometer scale resolution. We then use these observations to improve energy-relevant processes (such as photocatalysis and energy storage) and medical diagnostics and therapeutics.
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
March 28: Congratulations to Michael on his paper, "Improving Quantum Yield of Upconverting Nanoparticles in Aqueous Media via Emission Sensitization" published in Nano Letters! Article
March 3: The Group headed to the mountains for a winter retreat amid the biggest snow storm of the season!
January 25: Congratulations to Mark on his paper, "Nonreciprocal Flat Optics with Silicon Metasurfaces" published in Nano Letters! Article
January 24: Congratulations to David on his paper, “Broadband and wide-angle nonreciprocity with a non-Hermitian metamaterial,” published in Physical Review B! Article
January 8: Congratulations to Diane and Michelle on their paper, “Chemically Responsive Elastomers Exhibiting Unity-Order Refractive Index Modulation,” now published in Advanced Materials! Article
January 6: Chris is awarded a Kodak Research Fellowship. Congratulations Chris!
December 25: Congratulations to our alum, Dr. Tarun Narayan on his wedding!
December 19: Congratulations to Randy on his latest paper, “Nanomaterials for in vivo Imaging of Mechanical Forces and Electrical Fields,” now published in Nature Review Materials! Article
December 1: Jen presents at the Frontiers of Electroceramics workshop at MIT. Thank you Harry Tuller for the invitation!
November 26: David, Alice, Katherine and Jen attend the Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston!
November 20: Jen gives an invited talk at the School of Engineering retreat. Thank you Dean Widom for the invitation!
November 8: Jen is named one of the 2017 Moore Inventor Fellows! The press release is here.
November 7: Stefan, Randy, Alice and Jen attend the SHIFT 2017 Conference in Tenerife, Spain. Congratulations to Alice on winning the best oral presentation award in the bio session!
Featured Research
I. Improving Upconversion Quantum Yields:
Michael and co-authors demonstrate a facile method to improve upconversion quantum yields in Yb,ER-based nanoparticles via emission dye-sensitization. The approach detailed in this work is widely implementable, renders the nanoparticles water-soluble and, most significantly, improves sub-15 nm nanoparticles, making the method attractive for biological imaging applications. The work is now published in Nano Letters!
II. Nonreciprocal metasurfaces:
Mark and co-authors have designed an ultra-thin, Si-based optical metasurface for nonreciprocal free-space optics. Owing to the high-quality-factor resonances of the metasurface and the inherent Kerr nonlinearities of Si, this structure acts as an optical diode for free-space optical signals. The concept is also generalizable to other metasurface functions, providing a foundation for one-way lensing and holography. The work is now published in Nano Letters!
III. Metamaterials for Broadband Nonreciprocity:
David and co-authors have designed a metamaterial capable of acting as a diode over a broad spectral and angular range. Utilizing the extreme bandstructure tunability in Parity-Time symmetric plasmonic metamaterials, we show nonreciprocal transmission over a 50 nm and 60 degree range in the visible. These findings lay the groundwork for multiplexed optical diodes, nonreciprocal flat lenses with negative indices, and unidirectional invisibility cloaking. The work is now published in Physical Review B!
