Research Projects

We are studying the electrical and electrothermal dynamics of graphene in order to better understand this unique two-dimensional quantum systems, and also to explore potential high-frequency device applications. This work is in collaboration with Prof. Philip Kim (Columbia) and Prof. Xu Du (Stony Brook) and is supported by NSF-DMR and AFOSR.

Previous work used terahertz spectroscopy to probe the high frequency behavior of single-walled carbon nanotubes.



Recent Publications:
Recent Talks:
  • “High frequency properties of individual metallic carbon nanotubes,” an invited talk given by Daniel Santavicca at the 2012 APS March Meeting [slides]

We are developing superconducting thin-film devices as sensitive photon detectors for frequencies from the visible to the far-infrared. Present research focuses on nanoscale bolometric detectors. An incident photon or photon flux heats the electron system of the superconducting detector element. The strong temperature-dependence of the superconducting phase transition serves as a sensitive thermometer of the electron system. The temperature increase upon photon absorption is maximized by reducing the active device dimensions to the nanoscale. This work is in collaboration with Dr. Boris Karasik (NASA-JPL) and Prof. Charles Schmuttenmaer (Yale Chemistry) and is supported by NSF-CHE.

Left: 2” silicon wafer after microfabrication of more than a hundered antenna-coupled bolometer devices.
Top right: Optical micrograph of niobium bolometer with log spiral antenna for terahertz detection.
Bottom right: Measured frequency response of device with log spiral antenna.

Recent Publications:
Recent Talks:
  • “Superconducting single photon detectors,” a keynote talk given by Daniel Prober at the Keck Institute for Space Studies Workshop on Single Photon Counting Detectors (Caltech, 2010) [slides] [video]
  • “Energy resolution of THz single-photon-sensitive bolometric detectors,” an invited talk given by Daniel Santavicca at the Keck Institute for Space Studies Workshop on Single Photon Counting Detectors (Caltech, 2010) [slides]