Professor Stefano Corni, Dept. Chemical Sciences, University of Padova, and CNR Institute of Nanoscience, Modena, Italy
Molecular plasmonics deals with the interaction between localized surface plasmons in nanostructures with excitations in nearby molecules. This interaction led to notable modifications in optical phenomena involving the molecules, ranging from its spectroscopic response to its photochemistry. Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering, enhancement or suppression of photoluminescence, activation or quenching of photochemical processes in the molecule are examples of such effects
Both the (spatially localized) enhancement of electromagnetic fields associated with the plasmon excitation, possibly reaching the strong coupling regime, and the possibility of transferring electrons between the molecule and the nanostructure contribute, with different roles, to the mentioned effects.
To provide a microscopic understanding of the complex interactions governing molecular plasmonics, theoretical modeling is needed. Considering the large variety of size and time scales involved, such modeling should be multiscale in nature. In this seminar I will present the multiscale models we have been developing to tackle molecular plasmonics in its many realizations, that extend the atomistic quantum chemistry description of molecule-light interactions to such a complex realm. I will focus in particular on recent applications to hot-carrier photochemistry, tip-enhanced excitation energy transfer, and formation of hybrid molecule-plasmon excited states (plexcitons).
Stefano Corni is full professor of Physical Chemistry at the Dept. of Chemical Sciences of the University of Padova and associated researcher at CNR Institute of Nanoscience (CNR-NANO) Modena. He got his PhD in Chemistry from the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa in 2002, and then joined CNR-NANO Modena first as a post-doc then as a permanent researcher. In 2017 he moved to his current position. He has been visiting researcher at ETH/USI in Lugano and at RMIT in Melbourne. His research interests are focused on developing, implementing and applying multiscale models for molecules and biomolecules interacting with nanostructures, with emphasis on plasmon-enhanced spectroscopy & photochemistry, as well as on protein-nanoparticle interactions for bio and materials science. On these topics, he has been PI or partner PI in various EU projects, such as the ERC Consolidator grant TAME-Plasmons, the FET Open project ProID, and the EIC Pathfinder project iSenseDNA.
Stefano Corni research group page
Host: Nicolò Maccaferri, Department of Physics