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
July 30: PTL researchers presented their work at the DOE-EFRC PI meeting in DC on July 29-30. Thanks, DOE BES for organizing a great workshop! 
July 24: Congratulations to Mark on his paper, “Nanoscale nonreciprocity via photon-spin-polarized stimulated Raman scattering,” now published in Nature Communications!
July 9: Congratulations to Alice, Olivia, Chris, Claire, Randy and Stefan on their paper, “Optically Robust and Biocompatible Mechanosensitive Upconverting Nanoparticles,” now published in ACS Central Science!
July 9: Jen presents at the Telluride Science Solar Solutions Workshop in Telluride, CO.
July 8: Dayne Swearer joins the Dionne group as its newest Post Doctoral Researcher!
June 25: Jen presents at ICMAT 2019 Conference in Singapore. 
May 28: Jen presents at SPP9 Conference in Copenhagen.
May 9: Congratulations to Shing Shing Ho for successfully defending her thesis! 
May 6: Congratulations to Stefan on his paper, “Small Alkaline-Earth-Based Core/Shell Nanoparticles for Efficient Upconversion,” now published in Nano Letters!
April 17:Congratulations to Michelle and her teammates (Velvet Gaston, Bessie Noll, and Hadiza Felicien) who came in second place at Stanford’s first ever Cleantech Challenge. The winners of a challenge set by Total, Michelle and her team designed a microgrid that Total could use at sites in West Africa. 
April 10: Jen is the VINSE Colloquium speaker at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.
April 5-7: The D-Lab brings their 'SUPR'-powers to the Stanford Universitiy Photonics Retreat in Pt. Reyes. Thanks to SPRC for organizing!
April 3: Congratulations to Jason Casar, who is among this year's NSF Graduate Research Fellows!
April 3: Jen gives a seminar talk as the Herta Lang Speaker at Renssaelaer Polytechnic Institute in Albany, NY.
April 1: Along with Mark Braverman of Princeton, Jen is awarded the 2019 Alan T. Waterman Award from NSF! This award recognizes her work developing materials and methods to image dynamic physical, chemical and biological processes with high resolution. Thank you Paul McIntyre and Yi Cui for the nomination, and to all students, postdocs, and collaborators for making this research possible! News Release
March 31: Jen presents at the American Chemical Society meeting in Orlando, FL.
March 30: Stefan is named an Ignite Fellow, a program that allows innovators to formulate, develop, and commercialize their ideas. Congratulations, Stefan!
Featured Research
I. Nanoscale nonreciprocity via photon-spin-polarized stimulated Raman scattering:
Mark and Jen unveil a new all-optical scheme for breaking reciprocity at the nanoscale. The work, now published in Nature Communications, describes the design of an ultrathin high quality factor silicon metasurface capable of amplifying spin polarized stimulated Raman scattering, a previously unexplored nonlinear optical phenomenon. This platform could find uses in a range of technologies, from photovoltaics to all-optical computer chips.
II. Optically Robust and Biocompatible Mechanosensitive Upconverting Nanoparticles:
Alice and co-workers show that ligand-stripped upconverting nanoparticles have high mechanosensitivity, pH stability, and low chronic toxicity. This work, now published in ACS Central Science, gives researchers the green light to use the nanoparticles as in vivo mechanosensors to image mechanical processes in animal digestion. Let the feasting begin!
III. Bimetallic nanostructures: compbining plasmonic and catalytic metals for photocatalysis:
Katherine and co-workers recently reviewed bimetallic plasmon photocatalysts which combine a catalytic metal with a plasmonic metal, focusing on three architectures: antenna-reactor, core-shell, and alloyed nanoparticles. For each geometry, they describe the basic physical properties, discuss the unique intermetallic effects that lead to optical and/or chemical control, and point to future research directions. Their work is now published in Advances in Physics: X!
