Chan Yin Thai

Biography

Working as a professor at National University of Singapore in Chemistry Department. Completed PhD in Chemistry B.Sc., 2001 (University of California, Berkeley, USA); Ph.D., 2006 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA); Postdoctoral associate, 2006 - (Stanford University, USA)   Working as a professor at National University of Singapore in Chemistry Department. Completed PhD in Chemistry B.Sc., 2001 (University of California, Berkeley, USA); Ph.D., 2006 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA); Postdoctoral associate, 2006 - (Stanford University, USA)  

Research Interest

Semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) are essentially molecular clusters of semiconductor material measuring several nanometers across in diameter. At these length scales, quantum confinement effects dominate, resulting in their size-dependent absorption and emission that can qualitatively be understood by considering a "particle-in-a-box" model. These unique optical properties of NCs have recently been exploited in a myriad of ways, from biological imaging to light-emission diodes (LEDs). My earlier research efforts focused on incorporating highly fluorescent semiconductor NCs into sol-gel derived matrices (i.e. silica and titania) in order to investigate their nonlinear optical properties, in particular stimulated emission. These endeavors led to both technological advances such as emission-tunable room-temperature semiconductor NC lasers as well as more fundamental discoveries such as the nature of multiexcitonic emission in semiconductor NCs. As with most current efforts in the field of nanoscience, these research efforts are highly multidisciplinary in nature, bringing together techniques used in materials science, organometallic chemistry as well as optical physics.