Metallic nanostrutures and thin metallic films can be tailored to exhibit unique optical properties related to surface plasmons - optical waves originating from collective oscillations of electron density and associated electromagnetic field intensity. They allow a tight confinement of light at sub-wavelength dimensions and thus strongly enhance its intensity and local density of optical states. The branch of nano-photonics research that is devoted to investigation of this field is referred as to plasmonics and it holds to impact various modern fields including opto-electronics devices, spectroscopy, and optical bioanalytical technologies.

Research of our group aims at investigation of new phenomena related to the interaction of surface plasmons with biomolecules and to implement them to new biosensor concepts. In collaborations with other groups, we operate in the fields of nanophotonics, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and materials research. We employ developed sensor schemes for the observation of new (bio)materials and biomolecular systems as well as we pursue applications for the rapid detection of biomarkers and harmful compounds. In addition, we explore light confinement occurring on plasmonic nanostructures. We tailor characteristics of these materials in order to serve to amplify signal in various spectroscopy techniques and thin film devices.  

COLLABORATIONS:

	Prof. Wolfgang Knoll, Dr. T. Dimopoulos, Dr. A. Weinheusel, Dr. Ivan Barisic,  AIT-Austrian Institute of Technology (Austria)
	Prof. Ulrich Jonas, University of Siegen (Germany)
	Prof. Jiri Homola, Institute of Photonics and Electronics, Prague (Czech Republic)
	Prof. Bo Liedberg, Nanyang Tech. Unviersity (Singapore)
	Dr. Emiliano Descrovi, Politecnico di Torino (Italy)
	Dr. Tomas Riedel, Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Prague (Czech Republic)
	Prof. Chun Jen Huang, National Central University (Taiwan)
	Prof. Marc Lamy de la Chapelle, Le Mans University (France)
	Prof. Souhir Boujday, Pierre et Marie Currie Universite Paris 6 (France)
	Dr.Cesar Rodriguez-Emmenegger, DWI (Germany)