Visiting Fellow Dr Boyang Ding Shares Knowledge on Nanophotonic Resonators05/04/2017¯The New Zealand Centre of Peking University hosted Dr Boyang Ding, who is a NZC Visiting Research Fellow from the Department of Physics at the University of Otago. His lecture was well attended and Peking University students gained in-depth, specialist knowledge about nanophotonic resonator research in New Zealand.
The New Zealand Centre hosted Dr Boyang Ding, alongside his host professor Yanfeng Zhang, from Peking University’s Department of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at the College of Engineering. He delivered a lecture entitled “Film-Coupled Metallic Nanoparticle Resonators and their Applications” on Wednesday the 5thof April, 2017.
Dr Ding visited Professor Yanfeng Zhang’s laboratory to discuss potential collaborative research. Dr. Boyang Ding received his PhD degree from the University College Cork, Ireland in 2011. He then moved to the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria working for the European Research Council project ‘Active Nanophotonics’. Since 2013, he has been a Research Fellow at the Physics Department, University of Otago, New Zealand. Since his PhD study, he has been investigating the optical properties of metallic/dielectric nanostructures, based on the self-assembly techniques. He authored a number of pioneering results in the physics of periodic and irregular ensembles of nanostructures. His current research focus is the development of nanophotonic platforms for quantum information technologies and optical sensing applications. In the lecture, Dr. Ding has mainly discussed his work in nanophotonics and relevant applications. Nanophotonics is a newly emerged subject that focuses on the study of the optical properties of nano-meter length (billionth of a meter) scale structures. In the first part of the talk, Dr. Ding has reported their recently developed nanophotonic platforms that can be used to control strong light-matter interaction. When a photon meets an atom, fast energy exchange may take place between them, i.e. photons will start to hybridize with atoms, known as strong light-matter interaction. This effect will allow many high-end emerging applications, e.g. the conceptual quantum computing and quantum communication technologies. Using specially configured nanostructures, Dr. Ding and his co-workers have been able to manipulate the photon-atom interaction at the nano-scale, significantly improving the applicability of this effect. In the second part, the nano-optical sensing effect was discussed. Specifically, Dr. Ding has designed a type of delicate nanostructure, i.e. ‘film-coupled nanoparticle resonator’. The scattered colour of this nanostructure is very sensitive to the ambient humidity. In another word, by monitoring the colour change of this nanostructure, we would be able to measure the ambient humidity changes. This nanostructure provides a very simple and versatile structure for optical gas sensing. So long as one key component of this structure is replaced, one can conveniently realise optical detection for various gas species. Dr.Boyang Ding prepared his lecture as part of a Visiting Fellowship with the New Zealand Centre. If you are a member of the academic staff from any of our eight partner institutions and you are interested in attending a fellowship at Peking University, get in touch with our liaison officers to learn more about the application process. Visiting fellowships for New Zealand academics are held year-round at Peking University, across a broad range of departments, forming a significant contribution to the advancement of academic exchange between China and New Zealand. |
