Physical Chemistry Seminar: Professor Paras Prasad, SUNY at Buffalo (Host: Professor Mike Fayer)

Physical Chemistry Seminar: Professor Paras Prasad, SUNY at Buffalo (Host: Professor Mike Fayer)
Date
Tue February 19th 2019, 4:30 - 5:30pm
Location
Sapp Center Lecture Hall

Physical Chemistry Seminar: Professor Paras Prasad (Host: Professor Mike Fayer)

About the Seminar

"Multiphoton Processes and Nonlinear Optics for in situ Photon Conversion: Applications to Energy and Healthcare"

Multiphoton processes for efficient in-situ and on demand photon conversion open up opportunities for both fundamental research and many technological applications1-3 such processes can occur by truly nonlinear optical interactions proceeding through virtual intermediate states or by stepwise-coupled linear excitations through real intermediate states.  Through multiscale modeling, our nanophotonics research is  exploring new mechanisms of optical nonlinearity involving hybridization of molecular states, microscopic cascading of lower order nonlinearity through local field, chirality control in composites plasmonic nanostructures, and nonlinearity  in a medium with epsilon near zero. Another concept being explored is interaction of structured light carrying both spin angular momentum and orbital angular momentum, with a chiral medium coupling electric and magnetic dipoles, to induce a giant and wavelength tunable chiro-optic response. Another type of materials being developed in our lab is rare-earth doped fluoride nanocrystals which can act as optical nanotransformers for in-situ conversion of light from one spectral range to another by multiphoton processes through real intermediate states. The physics of manipulating excitation dynamics in these optical nanotransformers will be discussed, along with the control of  multiphoton conversion achieved using nanochemistry to produce hierarchically built core-multiple shell nanostructures and to tailor their interfaces. We recently introduced new energy transfer routes for broadband light harvesting and increased efficiency of both multiphoton upconversion (IR to Visible) and down conversion (Quantum cutting from UV or Visible to Visible or IR) via multistep-cascaded energy transfer in a core-multishell nanoarchitecture. The applications explored of this photon conversion technology include photon management such as IR harvesting of photons for photovoltaics, high contrast bioimaging, functional photoacoustic imaging, photodynamic therapy, light activated drug release and optogenetics for neuronal stimulation.  Future perspectives will be presented.

About the Speaker

PARAS N. PRASAD, Ph.D. is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Physics, Electrical Engineering, and Medicine; the Samuel P. Capen Chair of Chemistry; and the Executive Director of the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). Scientific American named him among the top 50 sciences and technology leaders in the world in 2005. He has authored over 800 publications; four monographs that greatly influenced the fields of (1) organic nonlinear optics, (2) biophotonics, (3) nanophotonics, and (4) Nanobioengineering and nanomedicine; edited eight books; and holds numerous patents. His many awards for research excellence include the American Chemical Society’s Peter Debye Award, the Morley Medal and Schoellkopf Medal ; SPIE’s highest honor, the President’s Gold medal; Optical Society OSA’s Michael Feld Biophotonics award; IEEE‘s Pioneer Award in Nanotechnology;; Guggenheim Fellowship; Sloan Fellowship; Western New York Health Care Industries Technology/Discovery Award; SUNY Excellence in the Pursuit of Knowledge award; University at Buffalo’s first Innovation Impact award; University at Buffalo‘s highest honor of President’s Medal. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, Optical Society, SPIE, and IEEE, and listed among Thompson Reuters “Highly Cited Researchers”.  He has Honorary Doctorates from KTH in Sweden, the Aix-Marseille University in France, MEPhI in Russia, and Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil. Globally, his technologies have produced nine spin-off companies, including publicly traded Nanobiotix, now in advanced clinical trials for cancer therapy.