Semiconductor plasmonic nanomaterials offer a tunable platform for both the harvesting of light and the production of cavities resonant with chemical bonding. We're interested in understanding the photophysics by which these low carrier concentration plasmonic materials can generate hot carriers and how to utilize these carriers for emerging energy applications. We're also interested in understanding how cavities may themselves influence reactivity.

Russo, Cisneros, Reynolds, Crane doi:10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-dr2nj

Halide perovskites (and adjacent compositions and structures) are an intriguing class of materials with impressive photoluminescence quantum yields, dynamic compositions, and tunable chirality. We seek to understand how structure can influence optical and spin coherence in this class of materials as well as how these can be engineered for new computing 

Crane et al. "Coherent spin precession and lifetime-limited spin dephasing in CsPbBr3 nanocrystals" Nano Letters doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c03329

Crane et al. "Coherent spin dynamics in Vapor-Deposited CsPbBr3 thin fims" Chem. Matter. doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.1c04382

We contend that realizing nanomaterial devices is limited by our understanding of how precisely synthesized nanomaterials behave in nonuniform environments.

To address this gap, we're developing new spectroscopies to understand how nanomaterials behave in anisotropic optoelectronic and magnetic environments. We're also enacting new deterministic manufacturing methods compatible with non-aqueous solvents to control placement and orientation in nanomaterial and thin-film devices.

Reynolds, Crane 10.26434/chemrxiv-2024-r6772