Aluminum

Mariama Rebello de Sousa Dias, assistant professor of physics, works with Aluminum, Element 13, as part of her research on plasmonics, a field which studies how light interacts with metals at the nanoscale.

Plasmonics has applications in biosensing, energy harvesting, and display technology.

Dias works specifically with an Aluminum-gold alloy that may enhance the performance of nanophotonics devices.

“Pure metallic nanostructures have improved the performance of optoelectronic devices, but there is a limit to the applications,” Dias said. “To overcome this constraint, we propose to use bimetallic structures, like an aluminum-gold alloy, to modulate the optical response of metals. The understanding of how the intrinsic properties of these metallic materials can be manipulated is fundamental to develop the next-generation nanophotonic devices.”

To learn more about Dias’ research in this field, visit her webpage.

As part of her research with thin film oxides for various applications, Dias has also worked with the following elements: Vanadium, Zinc, Cadmium, Manganese, Yitrium, and Neodymium.