Photonic Materials Group - News

January 3, 2013
Our paper Experimental verification of n=0 structures for visible light was published in Phys. Rev. Lett. and highlighted as the Editor's choice. A Viewpoint article was written on the paper in Physics 6, 1 (2013), and the paper was highlighted in Science 338, 727 (2012) and Nature 493, 143 (2013).

November 6, 2012
Ernst Jan Vesseur won the FOM Valorization Chapter Prize for describing the application potential of his Ph.D. work in a separate chapter of his thesis. This prize (worth € 5000) is awarded by FOM every year. Ernst Jan graduated on July 6, 2011, with his Ph.D. thesis entitled Electron beam imaging and spectroscopy of plasmonic nanoantenna resonances. 

October 11, 2012
Bas Zegers graduated at Utrecht University. He successfully finished his masters research project in our group entitled "Electrically induced modulation of surface plasmon polaritons". The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech is found here.

July 4, 2012: Valorisation grant for development of our ARCIS system
FOM and STW have awarded a grant of € 25.000,- for the commercial development of our Angle-Resolved Cathodoluminescence Imaging Spectroscopy (ARCIS) instrument by the start-up company Delmic.

June 16, 2012: NRC: Hollands Dagboek
NRC Handelsblad published a "Hollands Dagboek", a diary of Albert Polman's week in the USA and Italy.

June 15, 2012: ENI Renewable and Non-conventional Energy Prize 2012 awarded to Albert Polman and Harry Atwater
The prestigious ENI Renewable and Non-conventional Energy Prize 2012 has been awarded jointly to Albert Polman and Harry Atwater of the California Institute of Technology for their research on high-efficiency solar cells based on nanophotonic design. The Jury recognized their Candidature as ‘outstanding and fully deserving the Prize’. The prize, an amount of € 200.000,-, will be awarded in a ceremony in Rome on June 15, 2012 in the presence of the president of the Italian Republic. See here for a videoclip of ENI on the work on which the prize was awarde and a video of the award ceremony..

Albert Polman, president Giorgio Napolitano and Harry Atwater

May 26, 2012: "When Hary met Albert"
NRC Handelsblad published am interview "When Harry met Albert" on the long-standing collaboration between our group and that of Harry Atwater at Caltech.

February 21, 2012: Triple-PV day for our group
Nature Materials published our Commentary Article: Photonic design principles for ultrahigh-efficiency photovoltaics, A. Polman and H.A. Atwater, Nature Mater. 11, 174 (2012)
Nature Communications published our article: Broadband omnidirectional antireflection coating based on subwavelength surface Mie resonators
P. Spinelli, M.A. Verschuuren, and A. Polman, Nature Comm. 3, 692 (2012)
Nature Photonics published a News and Views article on our new Fourier App: Fourier transform on the move, Nature Photon. 6, 78 (2012)

Our work was reviewed in various newspapers and tv and radio-interviews:
- Light management doubles PV efficiency, New-energy.tv, March 14, 2012
- De zon levert steeds meer energie op, NRC Handelsblad, March 9, 2012
- Interview Dichtbij Nederland Radio, March 8, 2012
- Interview KRO Goedemorgen Nederland Radio 2, February 27, 2012
- Zwart gat silicium helpt zonnecel, De Volkskrant, February 23, 2012
- Superefficiente zonnecel op komst, het Parool, February 22, 2012
- Succes voor FOM en Philips, Eindhovens Dagblad, February 21, 2012
- Interview BNR Nieuwsradio, February 24, 2012
- Interview EenVandaag Television, February 22, 2012
- Interview Amsterdam FM radio, February 21, 2012
- Interview Hoe Zo!? Radio 5, February 21, 2012

January 15, 2012
Hinke Schokker graduated at Utrecht University. She succesfully finished her masters research project in our group entitled "Polarization-independent optical metamaterial". The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech is found here.

December 13, 2011
We held a group Christmas Party to celebrate the completion of James Parson's post-doc project, Ernst Jan's departure to Caelux in California,  Jorik's Shell prize, Hinke's masters graduation, Piero's return from Caltech, the arrival of three new group members after the summer(Marie Anne, Benjamin and Bas) and the submission of 20 manuscripts in 2011.

December 14, 2011
Our paper Single-photon generation by an electron beam, by X. Bendaña, A. Polman, and  F.J. García de Abajo was featured on the cover of the December 14, 2011 issue of Nano Letters.

November 23, 2011
Jorik van de Groep has won one of the three Shell Young Talent Prizes. Jorik received this prize of € 2,000 for his master thesis Light trapping in thin silicon waveguides by plasmon-mediated mode coupling carried out in our group. Jorik graduated cum laude from the University of Utrecht in August 2011. The prize is awarded to the best master students in physics, based on their overall study results and the innovative character and quality of their master project. Jorik received the Award from Dr. Dirk Smit, Director Research of Shell, during a ceremony at the Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetesnchappen in Haarlem.  

October 8, 2011
Albert Polman gave a lecture at "Kennis op Zondag", an event for the general public highlighting recent developments in scientific research. Polman's lecture was entitled "Moonwalk for light: optical metamaterials". The event was organised by NWO, KNAW, Museon and De Volkskrant.

October 7, 2011
NRC Handelsblad published an article on Steve Jobs, in which Albert Polman was interviewed om Job's achievements as an inventer,

October 3, 2011
We welcome Benjamin Brenny as a new PhD student in our group; he will work on plasmonic metamaterials.

September 20, 2011
We have published the first App based on our research; it is designed to give basic insight in Fourier transform. The App is called 2D-Fourier and is available for free at the Apple App store; it runs on both iPhone and iPad. Versions for additional platforms may become available later. Click here for more details. Click here for more details

September 12, 2011
We welcome Marie Anne van de Haar as a new PhD student in our group; she will work on plasmonic metamaterials.

September 1, 2011
We welcome Bas Zegers as a new masters student in our group; he will work on plasmonic nano-optics.

August 29, 2011
Jorik van de Groep graduated at Utrecht University. He succesfully finished his masters research project in our group, entitled: "Light trapping in thin silicon waveguides by plasmon mediated mode coupling" The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech is found here. Jorik will continue as a PhD student in our group.

August 11, 2011
NRC Handelsblad published a full-page article about our Amsterdam nanoCenter cleanroom.

August 13, 2011
NRC Handelsblad published a short article entitled: "Antenna for visible light is smallest ever" about our recent paper in NanoLetters.

July 6, 2011
Ernst Jan Vesseur succesfully defended his PhD thesis "Electron beam imaging and spectroscopy of plasmonic nanoantenna resonances" at Utrecht University. The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech can be found here.

June 27, 2011
Ruben Maas graduated at Utrecht University. He succesfully finished his masters research project in our group, entitled: "Optical measurements on plasmonic metamaterials"" The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech is found here. Ruben will continue as a PhD student in our group.

June 20 - July 15, 2011
We held a special summerschool, in which several renowned researchers from allover the world visited our group for several weeks to carry our joint experiments, brainstorm about future research directions, and write papers on ongoing collaborations. Harry Atwater( (Caltech), Naomi Halas (Rice Univ.), Peter Nordlander (Rice Univ.), Nader Engheta (Univ. Pennsylvania), Javier Garcia de Abajo (Inst. Optics Madrid), and several of their group members attended this very succesful event.

June 9, 2011
Claire van Lare won a poster prize at the International Workshop on plasmonics for energy and the environment"in Vigo, Spain. for her poster entitled "Light trapping in amorphous Si thin film solar cells". Her contribution was awarded a cash prize of $250.=.

March 23, 2011
The Center for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University has performed an analysis of the citation impact of our group's research. The citations by other researchers to all articles we have published in the period 2005-2009 were analyzed. It was concluded that the field-normalized average citation impact of our work is 5,18 times the world average.

December 15, 2010
Albert Polman received an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.3 million euro. The grant will be used to expand our group's research on optical metamaterials, plasmonic solar cells and opto-mechanics. ERC grants are awarded through a yearly European competition, in which the applicant's research proposal, past research achievements and the infrastructure of the group and the institute are evaluated.

December 1, 2010
Ernst Jan Vesseur won the second price in the "Science of Art" competition at the MRS Fall Meeting in Boston. His contribution was entitled "Self-portrait of the electron microscope". His contribution was selected out of a diverse array of 50 submissions, and was awarded a cash prize of $200.=.

November 30, 2010
The International Energy Agency (IEA) published the new Technology Roadmap on Solar Photovoltaic Energy. It specifically mentions "plasmonics" as a key new technology. Our group has played an important role in initiating the research field pf plasmonics and its application in photovoltaics. It does not happen often that results of fundamental research appear on a roadmap in such a short period of time.

November 23, 2010
Ewold Verhagen is the winner of the 2010 FOM prize for the best thesis chapter that describes the application aspects of a PhD project (FOM Valorisatiehoofdstuk Prijs). He receives the prize of 5,000 euro for Chapter 10 in his PhD thesis Subwavelength light confinement with surface plasmon polaritons. Earlier, Ewold won the FOM thesis prize for the best thesis in physics in The Netherlands.

November 11, 2010
Albert Polman wrote an opninion article entitled "Kan de zon in onze energie-behoefte voorzien? (Can the sun fulfill our energy needs?)" that has been submitted to the National Science Agenda of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). This agenda lists 50 key questions across all scientific disciplines.

October 11-15, 2010
Ernst Jan Vesseur contributed to the "Physics with Industry" workshop organised by FOM, STW and the Lorentz Center. He helped solve a problem at NXP on electric discharge in nanoscale integrated cicruit geometries.

October 4, 2010
Claire van Lare graduated at Utrecht University. She succesfully finished his masters research project in our group. She will stay in our group as a PhD student. The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech is found here.

September 28, 2010
Ewold Verhagen is the winner of the 2010 FOM PhD thesis prize. He receives the prize of 10,000 euro for his PhD thesis Subwavelength light confinement with surface plasmon polaritons. The FOM thesis prize is awarded annually to the best thesis in physics in The Netherlands. Criteria are the achievement of key new fundamental insights, originality of the research method, breadth and depth demonstrated by the candidate as well as presentation of the work in the thesis. For further details click here. 

September 6, 2010
Albert Polman gave a plenary lecture at the 25^th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (EU PVSEC) / 5^th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC-5), Valencia, September 5-10, 2010. In the summary of the conference, presented by the conference chair, our work was mentioned as one of the highlights of the conference.

August 25, 2010
We welcome three new students from Utrecht University in our group: Hinke Schokker, Jorik van de Groep and Ruben Maas, who will work on plasmonic nano-optics.

June 28, 2010
Toon Coenen graduated at Utrecht University. He succesfully finished his masters research project in our group. He will stay in our group as a PhD student. The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech is found here.

May 2010
The magazine Photonics Spectra published an article on Optical Metamaterials and interviewed Albert Polman.

May 12, 2010
The front cover of the May issue of Nano Letters (Vol. 10, No. 5, 2010) shows an artists impression of our recent paper on ultra-small mode volume plasmonic nanodisk resonators.

April 24, 2010
De Volkskrant published a news article based on our article on Negative refraction in Nature Materials.

April 19, 2010
Maarten Hebbink graduated at Utrecht University. He succesfully finished his masters research project in our group. The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech is found here.

April 9, 2010
Ewold Verhagen was awarded one of the two prizes for the best presentation at the Symposium "Plasmonics and Metamaterials" at the MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco for his presentation entitled "Negative index of refraction in plasmonic waveguide arrays".

April 7, 2010
Albert Polman was appointed Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS) "in recognition of pioneering studies in nano-photonics: the control, understanding, and application of light at the nanoscale. MRS Fellows are appointed "for their distinguished research accomplishments and their outstanding contributions to the advancement of materials research worldwide".The MRS Fellowship is an exclusive appointment. MRS has only 97 Fellows; Polman is the first Dutch MRS Fellow.

MRS president David Ginley and Albert Polman

March 24, 2010
Marc Verschuuren succesfully defended his PhD thesis "Substrate Conformal Imprint Lithography for Nanophotonics"at Utrecht University. His advisors are Albert Polman (AMOLF) and Hans van Sprang (Philips Research). The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech can be found here.

March 22, 2010
Albert Polmans appeared on Amsterdam's AT5 television news channel, describing our recent work on light trapping in thin solar cells.

March 2, 2010
We welcome Rutger Thijssen as a new PhD student in our group, who will work on plasmonic nano-optics.

February 23, 2010
Our article A single-layer wide-angle negative index metamaterial at visible frequencies was accepted for publication in Nature Materials.

February 20, 2010
NRC Handelsblad published a news article based on our articles on plasmonic solar cells.

February 19, 2010
Our article Plasmonics for improved photovoltaic devices appeared in Nature Materials, together with an Editorial Article.

January 31, 2010
Albert Polman's nanophotonics class at Utrecht University came to an end with a Student symposium on Nanophotonics. The students presented recent articles in the literature.

January 5, 2010
We welcome two new group members: James Parsons, who will work in our group as a post-doctoral researcher on optical metametarials and Piero Spinelli, who will work as a PhD student on light trapping in plasmonic solar cells.

December 16, 2009
Ewold Verhagen successfully defended his thesis "Subwavelength light confinement with surface plasmon polaritons". The PhD degree was warded cum laude. Thesis advisors were Albert Polman and Kobus Kuipers.The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech is found here.

December 16, 2009
A news article on our electrical plasmon source appeared in NRC Handelsblad.

December 11, 2009
Albert Polman's Nanophotonics class with students from Utrecht University paid a visit to the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, with lab visits to Philips research and the AMOLF Nanowire photonics group.

December 6, 2009
Our article A silicon-based electrical source of surface plasmon polaritons appeared in Nature Materials, together with a News and Views article entitled Electrifying plasmonics on silicon.

November 12, 2009
We held the kick-off meeting of our new Nanophotovoltaics program, in which our group collaborates with the groups of Mischa Bonn and Jaime Gomez Rivas at AMOLF.

November 11, 2009
We celebrated that the 200^th publication of our group appeared in press. It is the article Improved red-response in thin film a-Si:H solar cells with soft-imprinted plasmonic back reflectors, by V.E. Ferry, M.A. Verschuuren, H.B.T. Li, R.E.I. Schropp, H.A. Atwater, and A. Polman, Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 183503 (2009)

October 7, 2009
Albert Polman was interviewed by the Dutch Newspapers De Volkskrant and NRC Handelsblad about the Nobel Prize in Physics that was awarded to Charles Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith for their work on fiber optic communication and the invention of the CCD detector.

October 8, 2009
Our work was described in a News Feature entitled Plasmonics - surfing the wave that appeared in Nature 461, 720 (2009).

September 9, 2009
Erwin Kroekenstoel graduated at Utrecht University. He succesfully finished his masters research project in our group. The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech is found here.

July 25, 2009
Our recent article on the Purcell factor enhanced scattering from Si nanocrystals in an optical microcavity (Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 027406 (2009)), was highlighted by the Dutch national newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

July 20, 2009
Our article "Plasmonic solar cells", published in Optics Express in November 2008, ranks the most downloaded article of all journals published by the Optical Society of America (OSA) in January, April, May and June of 2009. It ranked second in December 2008 and in February and March 2009.

June 29, 2009
We welcome Toon Coenen, who will work in our group as a masters student from Utrecht University, investigating athodoluminescence spectroscopy of plasmonic nanostructures.

June 20, 2009
We held a successful workshop on "Nanophotovoltaics" in Amsterdam, just before the start of the 4^th International Conference on Surface Plasmon Photonics (SPP4), in which researchers from CALTECH, Stanford University, the Australian National University, and AMOLF came together to discuss progress and prospects of photovoltaic energy conversion concepts that involve plasmons, quantum dots and/or semiconductor nanowires.

June 17, 2009
Rene de Waele successfully defended his thesis "Controlling light with resonant plasmonic nanostructures" at Utrecht University. The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech can be found here.

May 20, 2009
Our paper on Nanowire plasmon excitation by adiabatic mode transformation was published in Physical Review Letters and highlighted by the online version of the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant.

May 16, 2009
Albert Polman was elected member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW).

May 10, 2009
We welcome Vivian Ferry, from Harry Atwater's group at CALTECH, who will carry out a project on thin-film plasmonic solar cells together with Utrecht University and Philips Research.

April 15, 2009
Ernst Jan Vesseur won a poster prize at the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco, for his poster "Surface plasmon ring cavity: large Purcell factor over large bandwidth". The prize, a $ 500 cash honorarium, was the third in a row, after Ernst Jan won earlier poster awards at the Nanometa conference in January 2009 and the NANONED conference in November 2008.

March 25, 2009
Martin Kuttge successfully defended his thesis "Cathodoluminescence plasmon microscopy" at Utrecht University. Thesis advisors were Albert Polman and Javier Garcia de Abajo. The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech can be found here.

February 25, 2009
Rob van Loon successfully defended his thesis "Electrical excitation of surface plasmon polaritons" at Utrecht University.The text of Albert Polman's graduation speech can be found here.

February 9, 2009
We welcome Maarten Hebbink, who will work in our group as a masters student from Utrecht University, studying light trapping in plasmonic solar cells.

January 23, 2009
Albert Polman's nanophotonics class at Utrecht University came to an end with a Student symposium on Nanophotonics. The students presented recent articles in the literature and several members of our group gave short presentations about their work.

January 5, 2009
Our article "Design principles for plasmon enhanced solar cells" was among the top-10 most-downloaded papers in Applied Physics Letters in November and December 2008.

November 25, 2009
FOM granted funding for a research program entitled "Nano-photovoltaics", in which the groups of Albert Polman, Mischa Bonn and Jaime Gomez Rivas will collaborate to develop novel photovoltaic energy conversion concepts. The total budget is 2.1 Meuro. The program will be carried out in collaboration with partners at Utrecht University, the Energy Research Center (ECN), CALTECH, Stanford University, and the Australian National University and will focus on light trapping with plasmonic nanostructures, novel plasmonic quantum dot solar cell geometries, and nanowire solar cells. The program will be lead by Albert Polman.

November 7, 2008
A Perspective Article, entitled "Plasmonics Applied", by Albert Polman, was published in Science 322, 868 (2008)

November 5, 2008
Albert Polman gave a lecture at a Student Symposium on Energy at the University of Amsterdam entitled: Nano-photovoltaics: solving a big problem with nanotechnology.

September 15, 2008
Albert Polman was appointed Honorary Member of the International Committee for the International Conference Series on Ion Beam Modification of Materials (IBMM) for "the  tremendous  contribution  you  have  made  to  the  committee,  both  as  a  member  and  as  secretary,  and  for  your  broader  contribution  to  the  field  of  ion beam  modification  of  materials,  which  has  been  both  stimulating  and  inspirational."

September 8, 2008
We welcome Erwin Kroekenstoel, who will work in our group as a masters student from Utrecht University, studying upconversion in plasmonic nanostructures.

September 5, 2008
Albert Polman started his Nanophotonics Class at Utrecht University. See www.erbium.nl/nanophotonics

August, 2008
We welcome back Rene de Waele who spent one year in the group of Harry Atwater at CALTECH, working on plasmonic nanostructures.

June 23, 2008
We held a group party to say goodbye to Kylie Catchpole who spent one year in our group as a post-doc working on plasmonic solar cells. We will continue to collaborate in the future.

May 9, 2008
Albert Polman gave a plenary presentation at the CLEO/QELS conference in San Jose, entitled "Plasmonics: Optics at the nanoscale".

April 28, 2008
Fiona Beck, A Ph.D. student from the Australian National University, arrives in our group for a stay of several weeks, to work on a collaborative project on plasmonic photovoltaics.

February 3-9, 2008
Our entire group made a trip to California for a Plasmonics/Photovoltaics Workshop, organized together with Harry Atwater at CALTECH and Mark Brongersma at Stanford University. We first visited CALTECH for three days and held presentations, labtours and research brainstorms with CALTECH and Stanford students. We then traveled to Stanford University for a 2-day Photovoltaics Meeting, again with CALTECH and Stanford Students. The latter meeting was also held to develop ideas for a new joint photovoltaics research program in which FOM-AMOLF, CALTECH, Stanford University and the Australian National University collaborate.

December 20, 2007
We have published an applet on this website that calculates the modifications of the radiative decay rate, the total decay rate, and the quantum efficiency of an optical emitter in close proximity to a prolate-shaped metal nanoparticle. The applet can be used to get a flavor on how the luminescence properties of the emitter depend on the large number of parameters that are involved.

November 17, 2007
The new focused ion beam system is operational. The system, a FEI dual-beam system, was awarded to AMOLF through a "NWO-Groot" investment grant in 2006. For our group, this new tool, provides unique possibilities to fabricate plasmonic nanostructures. The 30 keV Ga ion beam milling system is supplied with an in-situ scanning electron beam system, so that ion beam milling can be followed in real time.

November 14, 2007
FOM has established a national research program entitled "Plasmonics". In this program, which will provide funding for 11 Ph.D. students/post-docs, five  research groups at AMOLF and groups at Leiden University, Utrecht University the Free University Amsterdam will collaborate on many aspects of plasmon optics, focusing on achieving control over light at the ultimate length and time scales. The program will be lead by Prof. Kobus Kuipers at AMOLF. Our group was awarded one project in this program. In addition the program provides funding for technical support at the new focused ion beam system.

July 17, 2007
We held a group party to welcome Javier Garcia de Abajo (our "Joop Los" Fellowship summer visitor), Harry Atwater (who is visiting for a five-week period this summer, with his family), and Kylie Catchpole as a new member of our group. We said goodbye to Hans Mertens, who leaves for a new job at NXP, and to Rene de Waele, who will move to CALTECH for a 1-year stay in Harry Atwater's group.

July 11, 2007
Our group was awarded a research grant "Plasmonic Photovoltaics" by the Global Climate and Energy program, an initiative sponsored by ExxonMobil, GE, Schlumberger and Toyota. The grant, at a total of 1.6 million dollar, is awarded to a joint research program between our group and the groups of Prof. Harry Atwater at the California Institute of Technology and Prof. Mark Brongersma at Stanford University. The team will study novel physical concepts as well as device concepts to enhance the efficiency of thin-film solar cells using surface plasmons. The AMOLF part of the grant amounts to $ 542.000.=.

June 26, 2007
Dr. Javier Garcia de Abajo arrives for a series of visits in which we will collaborate on various aspects of cathodoluminescence spectroscopy. Javier was awarded AMOLF's "Joop Los Fellowship", which honors a visitor to AMOLF for outstanding work in an area in which the institute is active.

June 25, 2007
Prof. Harry Atwater from the California Institute of Technology arrives for a five-week visit in which we will collaborate on various aspects of plasmonics, cathodoluminescence spectroscopy and photovoltaics.

May 25, 2007
Albert Polman was elected member of the Royal Dutch Society of Sciences (Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetenschappen), a society that stimulates the application of science in society. Every year, the society elects some 10-20 new members.

April 25, 2007
Hans Mertens successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis entitled "Controlling plasmon-enhanced luminescence" at Utrecht University. A digital copy of the thesis is available here.

January 26, 2007
Albert Polman's nanophotonics class came to an end with a Student symposium on Nanophotonics. The students presented recent articles in the literature and several members of our group gave talks about their work.

January 22, 2007
Ernst Jan Vesseur graduated at Utrecht University. He finished his masters research project in our group on Cathodoluminescence imaging of plasmon modes in metallic nanowires in a collaborative project with the group of Prof. Harry Atwater at CALTECH. Ernst Jan received his graduation speech in the aula of the Academy Building of the University.

September 25, 2006
Joan Penninkhof successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis entitled "Tunable plasmon resonances in anisotropic metal nanostructures" at Utrecht University. A digital copy of the thesis is available here.

August 25, 2006
Our article on cathodoluminescence imaging of surface plasmon polaritons was highlighted in Science Magazine (Science 312, 1719 (2006)).

July 23-27, 2006
The Gordon Conference "Plasmonics - Optics at the nanoscale" (chair: Albert Polman, vice-chair: Harry Atwater) was held in Keene, NH, USA.

June 21, 2006
AMOLF was awarded an investment grant from NWO of 2.5 million euro to purchase a dual-beam focussed ion beam system and a professional e-electron beam lithography system. These systems will greatly increase our group's abilities to fabricate photonic nanostructures.

May, 2006
Ernst Jan Vesseur joined our group as an undergraduate student from Utrecht University. He will investigate plasmonic properties of metallic nanowires in a collaborative project with the group of Prof. Harry Atwater at CALTECH.

February 3, 2006
Albert Polman's nanophotonics class came to an end with a student symposium on Photonic and plasmonic metametarials. The students presented recent articles in the literature and several members of our group gave talks about their work.

January 1, 2006
Albert Polman is appointed by the Board of FOM as the director of AMOLF for a period of 5 years. Under his guidance, AMOLF's research program will focus on two main themes: Nanophotonics (45 researchers), and Physics of Biomolecular Systems (70 researchers). AMOLF will also explore new activities at the interface between these areas, in biophotonics. Albert will also remain a scientific group leader and his groups' research program on plasmonics will continue as in the past.

September 8-12, 2005
Our three master student group members have all graduated at Utrecht University! Martien den Hertog, Ewold Verhagen and Timon van Wijngaarden all received their graduation speech in the aula of the Academy Building of the university. The text of the speeches can be found here for Martien, Ewold and Timon.

September 9, 2005
Albert Polman starts a new class on Nanophotonics at Utrecht University. Lecture notes and assignments are found here.

June 30, 2005
Our group was awarded a research project within a new program that was awarded to AMOLF today: the Marie Curie Early Stage Research Training "AMOCROSS". AMOLF is now an official EU training site for Ph.D. students that carry out research at the interface between nanophotonics, biophysics and femtophysics.

June 28, 2005
A very successful Workshop "Photon Physics in The Netherlands" was held in the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam, organized by Michel Orrit (Leiden University), Jasper Knoester (Groningen University) and Albert Polman.

June 21, 2005
Prof. Harry Atwater (CALTECH), AMOLF's Joop Los Fellow for 2004/5 arrived in our group for a 7-week stay. Harry is joined by two of his students; Julie Biteen and Carrie Ross.

May 27, 2005
Our group is awarded a research project in a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative" (MURI) based in the United States. In this network the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), Harvard University, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of San Diego and en Berkeley University collaborate on surface plasmon nanophotonics. AMOLF is one of the two European partners in this program.

April 25, 2005
Our group was awarded a project in the National FOM program "Third generation photovoltaic solar cells", funded through an industrial partnership with Shell Research. The project will be carried out together with the group of Kobus Kuipers.

April 14, 2005
Albert Polman was installed as temporary director of AMOLF, by the director of FOM, Dr. K.H. Chang.

April 12, 2005
Albert Polman was interviewed by "Hoezo", a radio program of TELEAC, on the opening of the Center for Nanophotonics at AMOLF.

April 7, 2005
The Center for Nanophotonics at AMOLF was officially opened. In this Center, over 40 researchers will collaborate on a nanophotonics research program. The center's scientific group leaders are: Prof. Kobus Kuipers, Prof. Ad Lagendijk, Prof. Albert Polman (head), Dr. Jan Verhoeven, Prof. Willem Vos, and Dr. Jaime Gomez Rivas. The latter group will be stationed at Philips Research.

April 4, 2005
Prof. Denise Krol from the University of California at Davies arrived in our group for a three-month sabbatical stay. She is a specialist in non-linear optics and will support our program on metallo-dielectric nanophotonic materials.

March 31, 2005
Joan Penninkhof won a second prize in the Art Competition at the MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco, with an artistic representation of an ion beam deformed optical microresonator. She shares the prize with Tobias Kippenberg (CALTECH) who fabricated the initial structure before irradiation.

March 25, 2005
Rene de Waele finished his masters thesis "Fabrication of plasmon waveguides by self-assembly". He will graduate at Utrecht University in April, and has started a Ph.D. project in our group.

January 12, 2005
An opinion article appears in Material Today, entitled: Plasmonics: optics at the nanoscale, by Albert Polman and Harry Atwater.

December 17, 2004
A successful Workshop was held at AMOLF on Ion beam shaping of nanometals. A unique combination of expertise was brought together, addressing femto-second dynamics in ion-induced thermal spikes, Monte-Carlo simulations of impurity diffusion and nucleation on pico-second time scales, and continuum mechanical studies of deformation.

December 16, 2004
Prof. Harry Atwater (CALTECH) receives AMOLF's Joop Los Fellowship for the Fall of 2004. He receives this award because of his pioneering work in the area of nanophotonics, and for his role in the establishment of a unique collaboration between AMOLF and CALTECH in the past 10 years. Our collaboration with Harry's group has lead to a large number of joint publications and the mutual exchange of several group members. Harry will stay at AMOLF for 10 days this December, and then again in June and July 2005.

December 14-15, 2004
FOM Condensed Matter Meeting was held in Veldhoven. Our group gave a large number of presentations. Albert Polman gave a presentation on how our group's work on optical materials in the last 10 years found its way to industrial users, and how collaboration with industry has lead to several new ideas for fundamental materials research.

November 16, 2004
AMOLF has decided to expand its activities in nanophotonics by establishing a Center for Nanophotonics. Two new group leaders will join the Center with their research groups: Prof. Ad Lagendijk and Prof. Willem Vos. After their arrival, early 2005, the total staff of the Center for Nanophotonics will be 44 people.

November 10, 2004
Albert Polman was appointed Chair of the Nanoscience and technology Advisory Board of FOM, starting January 2005.

November 8, 2004
Our most recent article in Applied Physics Letters was highlighted at the cover of the journal. The article describes an infrared luminescent Er/Si/O superlattice that may enable the fabrication of an Er-doped Si laser.

August 10, 2004
Our research program was featured in a Laser Focus World.

July 7, 2004
The FOM-Shell program on Third Generation photovoltaic solar cells was officially inaugurated. This program will fund proposals on revolutionary fundamental concepts for the improvement of solar cell efficiency. The Board of FOM appointed Albert Polman as one of members of the program Committee, which is chaired by Prof. Wim Sinke. In 1984, Polman and Sinke together with Frans Saris developed one of the first FOM Si solar cells. A call for proposals will be published in August. See also article in IMPULS (in Dutch).

June 23, 2004
Michiel de Dood, who obtained his Ph.D. in our group in 2002, has accepted an assistant-professorship (with tenure option) at the University of Leiden, in the Quantum Computing Program. Presently, Michiel is a post-doctoral researcher at UC Santa Barbara. Michiel is the third alumnus from our group that is appointed as a University professor, after Prof. Mark Brongersma (Stanford University) and Prof. Pieter Kik (University of Florida).

June 22, 2004
A student Symposium will be held at Utrecht University. All students that took Albert Polman's Thin Films Materials Course will give presentations. In addition, contributions from the Debye Institute and AMOLF are included. Click here for the program.

June 9, 2004
Rene de Waele joined our group as an undergraduate student from the University of Utrecht. He will work with Joan Penninkhof on the fabrication of nanoscale anisotropic metallo-dielectric plasmon wires. Starting August 16 he will be joined by Martien den Hertog, Ewold Verhagen and Timon van Wijngaarden, all students from Utrecht University, who will also start research projects in our group.

May 24-28, 2004
The European Materials Research Society Meeting was held in Strasbourg. A very successful symposium was held on Nanophotonic Materials, organized by Harry Atwater, Henri Lezec, and Albert Polman. It was the first of its kind at E-MRS, and demonstrated that nanophotonics is becoming a new and important field of research. Click here for the Symposium Program.

April 21, 2004
Albert Polman was invited as keynote speaker at the annual LEOS-Benelux Symposium on Photonics Materials and Technology in Eindhoven, on May 10, 2004.

April 12-16, 2004
The Materials Research Society Spring Meeting was held in San Francisco. The Polman-Atwater collaboration presented a large number of papers. A diary of this week's event is posted here (in Dutch).

March 18, 2004
Our research proposal "Surface plasmon nanophotonics: How small can a photon be shrunk" was rated # 1 in the national FOM competition for proposals on Fundamental Strategic Technological Research. A total of 34 proposals were submitted. The search for a post-doc candidate on this project starts today.

March 6, 2004
The Dutch newspaper "NRC Handelsblad" published an article on the front page of its science section entitled "A ring of light". It describes the collaborative CALTECH-AMOLF discovery of the first Er laser on Si made entirely using standard Si processing technology.

February 5, 2003
Albert Polman returned to AMOLF after a successful sabbatical year at the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH). A summary of his research activities can be found here.

October 28, 2003
The Amsterdam nanoCenter is officially opened. This center for nanofabrication and nanocharacterization is operated by AMOLF and serves users from AMOLF and the two Amsterdam Universities.

October 20, 2003
Albert Polman was elected member of the Board of Directors of the Materials Research Society and will start serving a three-year term on January 1, 2004.

October 13, 2003
Jeroen Kalkman was invited to give a plenary lecture on surface plasmon photonics at the FOM Condensed Matter Meeting in Veldhoven, December 16-17, 2003.

October 2003
Our near-field/confocal optical microscope/AFM system is in operation! With this system we can perform optical spectroscopy at length scales smaller than the wavelength of light. It has capabilities for visible and infra-red photoluminescence and Raman imaging spectroscopy.

June 6, 2003
The cleanroom of the Amsterdam nanoCenter is finalized, exactly on schedule. During the summer various equipment will be installed. The nanoCenter is operated by AMOLF and serves users from AMOLF and the two Amsterdam Universities. The official opening will take place on October 28.

April 21-25, 2003
The MRS Spring Meeting was held in San Francisco, CA. The Polman and Atwater groups gave a total of 14 presentations. Albert Polman was one of the co-chairs of the conference that attracted over 2500 attendants to 26 symposia.

March 20, 2003
Albert Polman departed to the United States where he will spend a one-year sabbatical in the group of Prof. Harry Atwater at the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH).

last updated:  14-04-13