Welcome to the Moskovits Research Group
Broadly speaking, our group studies the new physics and chemistry that arise for nanoparticles and nanowires – nanosystems in general – at the nanoscale: how size and materials composition affect the optical and electrical properties, the surface chemistry and the way chemical species adsorbed on the surfaces alter the electronic and optical properties of nanosystems. Often, new physical effects arise at the nanoscale that have no simple counterpart in the bulk material, such as the dipolar localized surface plasmon – a collective excitation of the conduction electrons of a good conductor. These plasmons engender unique effects such as hugely enhanced Raman signals. They can also produce electrons and holes much like semiconductor junctions do when illuminated with light. New science enough for decades of research.