Moungi G. Bawendi
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Primary Section: 14, Chemistry Secondary Section: 13, Physics Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2007)
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Research Interests
My laboratory focuses on the science and applications of nanocrystals, especially semiconductor nanocrystals (aka quantum dots). Our research ranges from the very fundamental to applications in electro-optics and biology. There is an ongoing synthetic effort to address the challenges of making new compositions and morphologies of nanocrystals, novel nanocrystal heterostructures, and new ligands so that the nanocrystals can be incorporated into hybrid organic/inorganic devices, or biological systems. The fundamental spectroscopic focus is currently largely at the single quantum dot level, where we are developing methods for probing the dynamical properties of the electronic electronic excitations in quantum dots at time scales between 100 psec and 1 msec. We are also investigating the physics of multiexcitons in various quantum dots using both ensemble time resolved methods, as well as single quantum dot photon correlation spectroscopies. We are studying the charge transport properties of films of dots or dot/organic and dot/inorganic hybrids, within our group and with collaborators. These fundamental transport properties are critical for designing devices such as electrically driven quantum dot based light emitters, lasers, photodetectors and photovoltaics. We are also collaborating with biology and biomedical groups to design nanocrystal probes that meet specific challenges. These include nanocrystals that selectively bind to single receptors on cell surfaces for tracking applications, creating "smart" nanocrystals that sense analytes to report back on concentrations of species, and systematic characterizations of the effect of size, morphology, charge, and other surface compositions, on the uptake (or clearance) of nanocrystals for potential in vivo applications.
