Interview with Nanotechnology Young Researchers (II)
Interview with Elisabet Xifre-Perez (URV, Spain)
Welcome back to this issue of my Nanotechnology newsletter. I would like to offer the reader a series of interviews with young researchers in Nanotechnology & NanoScience in the following issues of the newsletter (although I will continue to introduce the reader to the different fields that compose nanoscience and nanotechnology).
For several years we have been organizing conferences after I left research and this has allowed me to meet many people from many countries. I met many of them while they were PhD students and now they are Doctors and many of them even have their own research group. I wanted to focus on those young researchers who recently finished their doctoral thesis and are currently doing a PostDoctoral or with a contract in a University / Research Center.
In this second installment I count with the collaboration of Elisabet Xifre-Perez (URV, Spain). I am fortunate to know Elisabet and a large part of her research group led by Dr. Lluis Marsal. Thank you very much Elisabet for lending me part of your time.
Biography:
Elisabet Xifre-Perez received her Ph.D. (Hons.) degree in Electronics Engineering from the University Rovira i Virgili , Spain (2007). She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and at The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (ICFO) and doctoral researcher at the Ecole Polytechnique (France). She is currently a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Department of Electronic, Electric and Automatic Engineering of the University Rovira i Virgili. Her research work focuses on micro and nanoporous materials for biomedical and optoelectronic devices.
1.- Hello Elisabet, tell us how nanophotonic came to your life.
I discovered nanophotonics during my PhD. Previously, I had studied the principles of photonics but in a very theoretical way, practically nothing applied. I liked what I studied and when I chose a topic for my thesis I discovered the great potential of the nanomaterials in the photonics field. That was my first step in this exciting world of nanophotonics.
2. Which fields of Nanotechnology have been present during your thesis research? And, what areas of your past research are you most excited about?
Porous materials have been the main object of study of my research. During my PhD, I focused on developing optical devices based on nanoporous silicon. Working with this material I learned to "mold" light and all the physical and mathematical concepts that exist in nanophotonics, since I made software for the simulation of its optical response. I also learned to analyze the influence of the fabrication parameters of the material on its optical response. After my PhD, all the research that I have subsequently carried out has been based on nanomaterials and their application for optical devices, materials such as silica nanospheres or, more recently, porous alumina.
3.- You are currently working at the URV in Lluis Marsal's group. What is the research you are currently carrying out?
Imagen: Dr. Lluis Marsal & Dr. Elisabet Xifre-Perez at the laboratory
Our research group is named NePhoS (Nanoelectronic and Photonic Systems) and our work encompasses applications within these two broad areas. On the one hand, we work with porous materials such as porous alumina and porous silicon. We have developed several fabrication methods for these materials and have also characterized them physically, optically and chemically. The in-depth knowledge of these materials, with variable physical characteristics and therefore variable optical properties is currently allowing us to develop a high number of applications, especially in the fields of biological and chemical sensors, as well as drug delivery and cell growth. In addition, a part of the group is also focused on the design and fabrication of high-efficiency solar cells with all kinds of materials, including the porous ones, that we know so well.
4.- In addition to being a researcher, you also teach at the University. What is the interest of the students in this field of Nanophotonic? Do you enhance it in any way?
My students study Telecommunications Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, so nanophotonics is an interesting topic for them. In both studies they have some subjects about the basis and principles of nanophotonics. The work that we do in our research group is much closer and more attractive for the biomedical students since the development of biological and chemical sensors is much closer to their training in the field of biology and chemistry. They are very interested. In this moment, we have some students doing their final degree work in our group and it seems that there will be more in the coming years as their interest is increasing.
5.- Can nanophotonics change us in any way or is it already part of our life?
In fact, we are already using nanophotonics in many aspects of our lives. The best known example are photovoltaic solar panels, formed by thousands of solar cells that convert photon energy from the sun into electrical energy. One of the major challenges of this sector is to achieve high conversion efficiencies at low cost, as the price of these panels difficults the expansion of this clean energy generation. Other very important applications of nanophotonics are chemical and biological sensors, in which I work, that now and in a close future will be important for health, food security, agriculture, and environment. One last example is the application of nanophotonics to optical communications, as the current social requirements are faster data communication and more energy efficient supercomputers.
6.- How could nanophotonics help fight a pandemic like COVID19?
Tests for the early and rapid detection of the COVID virus have been one of the main needs during this pandemic, especially tests for the detection of the virus during the asymptomatic period of the disease, that is, when the person infected has no symptoms, does not know that is positive, but can infect close contacts. Today, after more than a year of pandemic, the first tests for general use begin to appear, but it is necessary to develop faster tests with greater sensitivity that allow us to make this detection faster and with similar reliability to the PCR tests (antigen tests do not allow detection during the asymptomatic period). Much work must be done in this field and nanophotonics allows us to develop biological detectors with very high sensitivity and selectivity, not only for an extreme and unexpected situation like the current pandemic, but also for other possible pandemics that may appear in the future or for other diseases, as are currently demonstrating.
7.- Recently you had focused on studying Nanoporous Anodic Alumina. Could you explain exactly what this study consists of?
Nanoporous Anodic Alumina is a material formed by an infinity of pores with a size ranging from 7 nm to the micron range. We can mold the size and shape of these pores by simply changing the conditions of the fabrication system, this means that we can adjust in an easy and economical way its optical and physical properties. The great versatility of this material is fascinating and allows us to develop alumina structures, composites, nanoparticles and nanotubes for very different applications such as biological or chemical sensors that are essential in the fields of medicine, biology, food, nature, etc. This has been the main objectives of my work with porous alumina and I would like to continue them as the possibilities of this material are very wide and really interesting. In this moment, I am focused on the development of sensors and optical devices, not only their fabrication and application but also I am now very interested in developing optical simulation programs and control programs for the manufacture of the material.
Imagen: Porous anodic alumina: top view and transversal view of the pore structure.
8.- Currently, one of the most famous materials in nanotechnology research is graphene. Do you know if this material will have options in nanophotonics?
We have collaborated with the research group of Prof. Alicia de Andrés. They work with graphene and in this collaboration we have fabricated ultra-thin layers of graphene deposited on porous alumina membranes, obtaining efficient interference Enhanced Raman Scattering platforms for sensing. The results have been very satisfactory, with a publication in ACS Materials and Interfaces, and we continue working in this line to improve these initial results. We consider that graphene, even combined with other materials like porous alumina has a great potential for nanophotonics.
9.- What has been the highlight of your career so far?
I consider that working in research in such a difficult situation for science and for all researchers in general, is already a highlight. Now more seriously, I couldn't mention one in concrete. I have had the opportunity to work with great researchers and group leaders from whom I have learned a lot, not only at the scientific level but also at the level of managing the work of the group members, and this has allowed me to publish quite a lot articles in international journals with high impact factors. I think that all the experiments performed - both the successful ones and the ones that did not go well - all the hours at the laboratory struggling until everything works correctly and you get good results, make you evolve as a researcher and mature as a person. All of them teach you to be methodical, constant and self-sacrificing, like an elite athlete, and they give you experience and a global vision of the investigation. There is a lot of work to do, the field of nanophotonics is exciting and I am convinced that we can contribute a lot to science and society by facilitating their day-to-day with nanophotonics-based devices.
Acknowledgements: Thank you very much Elisabeth for giving me the opportunity to interview you. I hope this interview will be to the liking of my readers. Take care.
Thanks to you for helping spreading out all the work done in this broad field and all the technology in general.
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Regards and take care.
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