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Research@NSU

NSU Research: From Inquiry to Innovation and Education

 The research enterprise is paramount at Norfolk State University. With a focus on finding practical solutions to complex problems, research permeates the curriculum and emphasizes minority student participation at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

NSU students, faculty and staff provide leading expertise and contribute to shape the future in a range of fields from materials to biotechnology, to modeling, to simulation and computing, to the arts and the social sciences. NSU is home to several centers and institutes, where the researchers collaborate across disciplines to discover innovative answers and approaches to challenging problems.

We invite you to explore our accomplishments that, occasionally, have also been highlighted by the mass media. Full descriptions can be found in NSU Research magazine or the media reviews below.

 Research and Economic Development

Read the Abstracts on Nature Photonics & Optics Letters

Nature Photonics, a prestigious scientific journal, recently highlighted the works of Dr. Mikhail Noginov and research associates @ NSU in collaboration with Dr. Shaleev and associates @ Purdue University. The research effort was supported by several grants including the recently awarded NSF PREM:  “Photonic Metamaterials”.

The article written in Nature Photonics also references a previous publication by Dr. Noginov, Dr. Shaleev and associates in Optics Letters, published by the Optical Society of America (OSA).

Below are abstracts from each publication.

Abstract:
“Optical gain in a dielectric compensates for absorption losses in metallic nanoparticles.”
 

Surface plasmons - collective oscillations of free electrons that propagate along a metal/dielectric interface -have become a very hot topic because of their role in a broad range of optical phenomena. The intense fields associated with surface plasmons can enhance the optical properties of a material and have been observed on rough surfaces, in artificial nanostructures as well as in clusters and aggregates of nanoparticles. Effects attributed to surface plasmons, referred to as nanoplasmonics, include surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, the Kerr effect and extraordinary optical transmission.

However, strong damping of plasmons caused by metal absorption has been the major issue of most existing and potential applications of nanoplasmonics. It has been suggested that surrounding the metal in a dielectric with a high optical gain may compensate for these losses and enhance the nanoplasmonic effects. Noginov and colleagues have now shown experimentally that this is indeed possible 1.

1. Noginov, M. A. et al. Enhancement of surface plasmons in an Ag aggregate by optical gain in a dielectric medium. Opt. Lett. 31, 3022–3024 (2006). Published online 25 September 2006.                                           Read Article

 Abstract
“Highlights of "Enhancement of surface plasmons in an Ag aggregate by optical gain in a dielectric medium.”


We have observed the compensation of loss in a metal by a gain in a dielectric medium in the mixture of an Ag aggregate and a Rhodamine 6G dye. The demonstrated sixfold enhancement of the Rayleigh scattering is the evidence of the enhancement of the surface-plasmon resonance. The reported experimental observation facilitates many applications of nanoplasmonics.                                           Read Article