CoExAN - Project Programme H2020

Title Collective Excitations in Advanced Nanostructures

Acronym CoExAN
Project ID 644076 Call H2020-MSCA-RISE-2014 Programme H2020

Duration in months: 48

Starting date: 1st October 2015

Key words:

carbon nanotube, graphene, graphene nanoribbons, biographene, lasing, generation, terahertz, exciton, phonon, polariton, Cerenkov radiation, nano-circuits, electro-magnetic nano-emitters

Abstract

This project aims to develop, fabricate, theoretically and experimentally study carbon based nano-circuits which are able to generate, detect and process broadband electromagnetic (EM) signals. The carbon nanoscale EM sources can be based, in particular, on Cherenkov radiation emerging when electrons move inside carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or between spatially separated graphene sheets. The frequency of the Cherenkov radiation depends on the CNT radius and chirality or on the distance between graphene sheets. The performance of carbon EM nano-emitters is determined by the electron momentum relaxation time, which can be determined by measuring the generated THz and microwave fields. The frequency of the emitted EM radiation can be tuned by acoustic waves that provide distributed feedback for the EM wave. As well, the effects originating from strong coupling between material excitations in carbon-based structures and confined optical modes of microcavities will be investigated. The formation of polariton modes and their collective properties will be analyzed theoretically. Another set of problems to be considered in the proposed research is associated with the quantum mechanics and quantum optics of carbon-based nanostructures. We will look at excitonic and plasmonic collective effects in CNTs (especially narrow-band quasi-metallic ones, where excitonic effects are largely overlooked) and in few-layer planar Weyl materials such as graphene, silicene and germanene. We will also study collective photonics phenomena stemming from the quantum nature of light and look at sophisticated arrangements of carbon-based and other nanostructures in arrays or placing them in microcavities, thus utilizing the significant expertise of some of the participating groups in quantum optics aiming eventually at a design and feasibility study of novel advance-nanostructure-based optoelectronic devices including microwave, terahertz and light generators, detectors and frequency modulators.

Beneficiaries

1. Coordinator: University of Rome Tor Vergata (URTV), Italy. Official web-page: web.uniroma2.it
Principal investigator: Prof. Olivia Pulci

2. University of Exeter (UNEXE), UK. Official web-page: www.exeter.ac.uk
Principal investigator: Prof. Mikhail Portnoi

3. University of Eastern Finland (UEF), Finland. Official web-page: www.uef.fi
Principal investigator: Prof. Yuri Svirko

4. University of Iceland (UI), Iceland. Official web-page: english.hi.is
Principal investigator: Prof. Ivan Shelykh

5. The CNR Institute SPIN (SPIN) , Italy. Official web-page: www.spin.cnr.it
Principal investigators: Prof. Alexey Kavokin and Prof. Andrey Varlamov

Partner Organisations

1. Research Institute for Nuclear Problems of Belarusian State University (INP BSU),Belarus. Official web-page: inp.bsu.by
Principal investigators: Prof. Konstantin Batrakov, Dr. Polina Kuzhir

2. Yerevan State University (YSU), Armenia. Official web-page: ysu.am
Principal investigator: Prof. Gagik Yurii Kryuchkyan

3. De La Salle University (DLSU), Philippines. Official web-page: www.dlsu.edu.ph
Principal investigator: Prof. Richard Hartmann

4. V.Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (ISP), Ukraine. Official web-page:www.isp.kiev.ua
Principal investigator: Dr. Ihor Kupchak

WP1. Ab initio and Tight Binding calculations of electronic states in graphene ribbons, graphene/polymer sandwiches and CNT arrays

To calculate the electronic density of states by ab-initio methods in advanced carbon nanostructures of increasing sizes. To calculate the energy band structure of shaped bi-layered graphene nanoribbons.

To analyse the peculiarities of the dynamics of exciton-polaritons in a honeycomb lattice. To provide recommendations to the executors of wp3 (synthesis) for better achieving the final goal of the research (collective excitations, higher slowing down of the EM waves).

WP2. Theoretical study of collective phenomena associated with EM generation in graphene and other advanced carbon nanostructures

Theoretical investigation of collective EM emission and gain in graphene, carbon-nanotube arrays and other advanced carbon nanostructures based on various generation mechanisms.

WP3. Fabrication and characterization of monolayered and multilayered graphene, graphene/polymer sandwich structures, graphene ribbons, CNT and CNT arrays

Fabrication of carbon nanotubes arrays and multilayered graphene/polymer structures composed of single- and few-layer graphene sheets sandwiched between polymer slabs.

The designing of the blaze grating master to produce graphene/polymer sandwiches of variable thicknesses by nanoimprinting.

Comprehensive characterization of morphological and structural properties of the fabricated advanced carbon structures, including multilayered graphene/polymer structures and CNTs.

WP4. Experimental verification of the effects predicted within wp2

Experimental study of the electromagnetic response of CNT arrays, sandwiches and monolayer/bilayer/multilayer graphene structures as well as GNPs, and other advanced carbon structures.

Comparative analysis of these structures applicability for the purpose of induced EM generation.

WP5. Management and coordination of the project. Training and Dissemination activities

Coordination of the research activities within the consortium in such a way as to focus on the principal objectives of the project and to complete within its duration the central goal.

To enhance self-sustainability of the partnership via special staff training, to organize a number of project progress meetings, summer schools for ESRs and the special sessions on the international conferences.

The expertise of the participating teams covers different areas of contemporary physics and chemistry. The URTV team will contribute to the first principles calculations, based on DFT and Many-Body approaches and also provides synthesis of CNTs and CNT arrays. The UEF team is internationally recognized in the field of graphene and graphene-like structures synthesis and characterization. It will supply single-, bilayer- and multi-layer graphene, graphene nanoribbons and graphene/PMMA sandwiches that will be studied in this project. Researchers belonging to the INP BSU team are experienced in the field of nanocarbon characterization, THz, microwave and radio frequency measurements and data processing, numerical simulations and theoretical electromagnetics. The INP BSU team possesses a wide range of material characterization facilities including Raman spectroscopy, SEM, dc conductivity, microwave and THz measurements, optics, etc. The UNEXE and DLSU have complimentary high level expertise in the study of collective phenomena in carbon nanotube arrays, graphene, topological insulators, and generally in theoretical and mathematical physics including quantum and statistical mechanics of low-dimensional systems. The activity of the UI team is mainly focused on theoretical mesoscopic optics and quantum transport. In the field of mesoscopic optics, which is of particular importance for this project, the group is actively working on the theory of FIR-absorbtion in nano-scale systems, photonic crystals, dynamics of exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities and quantum optics of carbon based nanostructures. The YSU team is well known in the field of application of solid-state systems and quantum optics to create innovative solutions to the problem of collective excitations in advanced nanostructures. In particular, very recently the main attention of the team was in laser accelerators, laser-induced multiphoton manipulation of atoms and molecules and nonlinear nano-electromagnetism. The ISP team is an expert on electron-phonon interaction within ab-initio methods, and will give support to all the computational work through optimization, writing and parallelization of codes