Optics of Nanomaterials

While the chemistry, physics, and optical properties of simple atoms and molecules are quite well understood, this exploration demonstrates that there is much to be learned about the optics of nanomaterials. Through comparative analysis of the size-dependent optical response from nanomaterials, it is shown that, although strides have been made in computational chemistry and physics, bridging length scales from nano to macro remains a major challenge. Organic, molecular, polymer, and biological systems are shown to be potentially useful models for assembly.

Vladimir I. Gavrilenko is an associate research professor at the Center for Materials Research at Norfolk State University. He lives in Norfolk, Virginia.