Novel Nanostructures for Manipulating the Light

Abstract

Optical sensor devices currently occupies multi-billion dollar markets in the water and oil & gas industries. Fluorescent sensors currently demonstrate the highest sensing efficiency for general detection applications. Proper design of light management is required for fluorescent sensor devices, which can increase the overall efficiency or add new device functionality. To overcome this limitation, this thesis proposes the use of novel double heterostructure colloidal photonic crystals as a fluorescent sensor device. Double heterostructure colloidal photonic crystals sensor has the potential to be the elementary building blocks of the next generation of optoelectronic and sensing devices. This thesis presents the development of robust, facile, scalable, stable and cost-effective three dimensional fluorescent double heterostructure colloidal photonic crystals using conventional fabrication technology, thereby enabling photonic functionality to enhance fluorescence signal and sensing performance.