Fundamental photophysical properties of DNA-templated silver nanoclusters

DNA-templated silver nanoclusters have come into prominence, because of their fascinating properties, including high absorption cross section and high fluorescence quantum yield. These and other features can be readily tuned by changing DNA sequence.

The combination of desirable properties and tunability makes them suitable for a wide range of applications from biosensing to nanophotonics.

Surprisingly, the photophysical properties of these complexes are still poorly understood, and we aspire to remedy this deficiency.

The proposed research is based on the availably of a large library of the clusters, which offers an opportunity of systematic studies using advanced time-resolved spectroscopy techniques.

The project is organized into several subprojects, each focused at unraveling certain fundamental properties, starting with their electronic structure and dynamics, studies of which will be aided by quantum chemistry calculations.

The other subprojects include discerning the large and fast Stokes shift, characterizing interaction and energy transfer between DNA and silver nanocluster, as well as exploring photophysical properties of individual complexes with the help of photoemission electron microscopy coupled to ultrafast spectroscopy.

The knowledge obtained in this project will substantially enrich our fundamental understanding of these nanocomplexes, and provide necessary information for targeted synthesis of desired properties for a plethora of applications.