Plasmonic and Magnetic Hybrid Nanostructures for Smart Materials

Smart materials hold great promises for many intriguing applications in soft robotics as they exhibit chemical and physical responses to the applied external stimuli. This presentation will focus on the synthesis and assembly of plasmonic and magnetic hybrid nanostructures for enabling optical and mechanical responses for robotic applications. In particular, we will discuss a novel space-confined synthesis method for the production of magnetic/plasmonic hybrid nanostructures. The shape-dependent plasmonic and magnetic properties can be integrated into anisotropic hybrid nanostructures such as nanorods and nanodisks to not only control their nanoscale connectivity but also enable collective orientational alignment, allowing the design of smart materials with colorimetric and mechanical responses.