Projects
Probing chirality, induction of chirality, enantioselective adsorption, and phase behavior at the liquid-solid interface using scanning probe microscopy. KU Leuven
Surfaces and interfaces are everywhere. The properties of surfaces can be modified or altered by the adsorption of molecules. While in many cases, such thin films are disordered, forming and controlling two-dimensional (2D) molecular patterns on surfaces has many important implications. Through appropriate manipulation of intermolecular interactions and molecule-substrate interactions one can “encode” the information at the molecular level ...
Chiral-induced spin selectivity effect at nano and single-molecule scales (CISSCA) KU Leuven
Chirality is often considered as a structural property of molecules, but the concept also applies to electrons because of their spin. Achiral at rest, they acquire a helicity (chirality) in the direction of motion. Consequently, electrons are filtered according to their spin when crossing chiral materials. This newly uncovered chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect is surprisingly large. Spin polarization up to 100% has been ...
A model-based approach to unravel the driving forces in attrition-enhanced deracemization processess. KU Leuven
Molecular chirality is an important geometrical property with far-reaching implications in the pharmaceutical, food and agrochemical industries. Chiral molecules can exist in two non-superimposable mirror-image forms called enantiomers, which often possess substantially different biological effects. Since most chemical synthetic processes of chiral molecules result in an equimolar mixture of both enantiomers, referred to as a racemic mixture, ...
Development of a generic protocol for synthesis of conjugated polymer/nanoparticle hybrids. KU Leuven
This dissertation focusses on the synthesis of more advanced polymer structures by the use of air-stable Ni-initiators and the strong control over the Kumada catalyst transfer polycondensation (KCTP). About a decade ago a controlled chain-growth polymerization of poly(3-alkylthiophene) (P3AT) was published, which opened possibilities for the formation of new polymeric structures. Different research groups have focused on end-functionalization ...
Probing the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect under ambient conditions and at the liquid-solid interface KU Leuven
In this research project, the major focus will be on the utilization of scanning probe microscopy (SPM), (scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM)), under ambient conditions at the liquid-solid interface in order to probe supramolecular physisorption and chemisorption phenomena at spin-polarized interfaces, whenever possible in real time, using fast-scanning methods. The major objectives of the research are: 1) ...
Chirality by design in magnetic 2D materials University of Antwerp
Chirality in photonic structures KU Leuven
Investigation of the interaction of the spin and orbital angular moment of light with photonic structures, either built from chiral polymers, either exhibiting chiral structure themselves, or a combination of both.
Computational design of hetero-chiral magnonics Ghent University
Structures where the chiral interaction is spatially modulated will be investigate to see if they can be used to transport and process magnons. Similar photons, magnons are wavelike particles that can propagate through magnets This could lead to a complete new class of the information processing devices. Our approach will be based on of state-of-the-art numerical simulations on Graphical Processing Units (GPU’s).
Optical applications of multilayered nanostructures KU Leuven
New hybrid multilayered nanostructures composed of plasmonic and iron oxide nanoparticles, bound together by organic molecules, were fabricated. These unique structures exhibit interesting and new optical phenomena and can be used to unravel fundamental interactions between light and matter at the nanoscale. In this dissertation we explored new optical effects that were due to plasmon coupling effects and the presence of strong higher order ...