Photos:
One of my favorite parts of the science I do is how beautiful the luminescent emission is of the materials I make and study. We're always told that pictures are worth 1000 words, so I figured that showing a few pictures would document my work in and outside of my lab better than I can write.
Photos from Lab:
Semiconductor nanocrystals are luminescent. When they absorb light (a UV lamp in most cases here in these pictures), they absorb photons (light), which allows an electron to populate a higher energy level. When this electron relaxes back down to its ground state, a photon of a certain energy is emitted, corresponding to an energy within the visible spectrum. The energy that is emitted depends on the size of the nanocrystal, meaning we can energetically tune the light emitted by changing the size of the nanocrystal.
Outside the Lab (Outreach):
At the STEM Exploration Festival, I was able to use R- and S-carvone to demonstrate how chirality can affect the world around us in very unexpected ways! The R enantiomer smells like mint, and the S enantiomer smells like caraway seeds.
During the COVID19 pandemic, my Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Nienhaus, and I wanted to continue to share our affinity of beautiful luminescent objects, but could not go into lab during lockdown. Fortunately, there are many luminescent objects all around us. We shared how you can study these materials at home using tools you can build out of household objects in an editorial piece in the journal Matter, which you can find here!