Jayan Thomas, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, NanoScience Technology Center, CREOL and College of Engineering
E-mail: Jayan.Thomas@ucf.edu
Phone: 407-697-3645
Fax: 407-882-2819
12424 Research Parkway Suite 480
Orlando, FL 32826-3250

Education

• Postdoctoral fellowship: International School of Photonics, India
• Ph. D: Cochin University of Science and Technology, India
• M.S/B.S: Mahatma Gandhi University, India

Positions

• Research Scientist, College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona 2001-2005.
• Assistant/Associate Research Professor, College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona 2005-2011

Affiliations

• CREOL
• College of Engineering

Research

Research in my labs is focused on developing nanoarchitectured energy conversion and storage devices. Recently, we have developed a nanoarchitecturing technique using which polymer nanostructures can be printed efficiently at low cost. This technique is utilized to develop nanostructured polymer solar cells, nanoarchitectured electrodes for Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors, and printed biomolecule based photonic devices. Our nanoimprinting technique offers a simple route to fabricate large area nanostructures in a very short time.

Another line of work is the development of photorefractive polymers with improved sensitivity. Photorefractive composites derived from conducting polymers offer the advantage of dynamically recorded holograms without the need of processing of any kind. Thus, they are the material of choice for many cutting edge applications, such as updatable three-dimensional (3D) displays and 3D telepresence. Further improvements in the polymer composites could bring applications in telemedicine, advertising, updatable 3D maps and entertainment. We are also working on the development of new photorefractive polymers sensitive at IR wavelengths.

We are also studying the optical limiting properties of core-shell plasmonic nanostructures.

Current Funding

• PI: Printed Photonic Crystal-Based Tandem Polymer Solar Cell, NSF, 09/01/2012-03/31/2014
• PI: Printed Biopolymer-based Electro-Optic Device Components, AFRL 04/27/2012- 04/29/2013
• PI: "Nanostructured Transparent Electrode Substrates", (Subcontract from University of Arizona)
• Co-PI: “MRI: Development of Nonlinear Optical Spectrometer”, NSF, 09/01/12 – 08/30/2013

Awards, Honors and Societies

• VEECO award for the best nanotechnology innovations 2010.
• Recipient, Dr. K. S. Krishnan award (Most prestigious research fellowship awarded by Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India)
• Member, AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
• Member, SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering
• Member, OSA (Optical Society of America)
• Member, MRS (Material Research Society)/li>

Selected Publications

• Z. Yu, B. Duong, D. Abbitt, J. Thomas, “ Highly Ordered MnO2 Nanopillars for Enhanced Supercapacitor Performance” (Accepted for publication in Advanced Materials 2013)
• A. Amooali, P. Gangopadhyay, B. A-T Duong, J. Thomas, A. K. Sigdel, J. J. Berry, T. Gennet, N. Peyghambarian, R. A. Norwood, “Fabrication, Electrical and Optical Properties of Silver, Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) and Indium Zinc Oxide (IZO) Nanostructure Arrays”, (Accepted for publication in Physica Status Solidi (a) 2013)
• P. Chantharasupawong, R. Philip, J. Thomas, “Simultaneous optical and photoacoustic measurement of nonlinear absorption”, Appl. Phys. Lett. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4789870]
• B. Cocilovo, A. Amooali, S. Shahin, S. Islam, B. A. T. Duong, P. Gangopadhyay, J. Thomas, R. Norwood, “The Effect of Modular Diffraction Gratings on Absorption in P3HT:PCBM Layers”, Appl Opt. 52, 1025 (2013).
• R. Philip, P. Chantharasupawong, H. Qian, R. Jin, J. Thomas, “Evolution of Nonlinear Optical Properties: From Gold Atomic Clusters to Plasmonic Nanocrystals”, Nano Lett., 12, 4661−4667 (2012).
• P. Chantharasupawong, R. Philip, T. N. Narayanan, P. M. Ajayan, and J. Thomas “Optical power limiting in fluorinated graphene oxide: An insight into the nonlinear optical properties”, (accepted for publication in J. Phys. Chem. C).
• B. Duong, P. Gangopadhyay, S. Seraphin, J. Thomas “Multiwall carbon nanotubes grown by thermocatalytic carbonization of polyacrylonitrile”, Carbon 50, 4750 (2012).
• P. Chantharasupawong, R. Philip, T. Endo and J. Thomas, “Enhanced optical limiting in nanosized mixed zinc ferrites”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 221108 (2012).
• J. Thomas, P. Gangopadhyay, E. Araci, R. A. Norwood., N. Peyghambarian, Nanoimprint by Melt Processing: An Easy Technique to print versatile nanostructures”, Adv. Mater. 23, 4782 (2011). Highlighted on MaterialsViews.com.
• J. Thomas, C. W. Christenson, P.-A. Blanche, M. Yamamoto, R. Norwood, N. Peyghambarian, “Photoconducting polymers for photorefractive 3D display applications” Chemistry of Materials (invited review article) Chem. Mater. 23, 416 (2011).
• P.-A. Blanche, A. Bablumian, R. Voorakaranam, Armen Ordyan, C. Christenson, D. Lemieux, W. Lin, S. Rokutanda, T. Gu, D. Flores, P. Wang, J. Thomas, R. A. Norwood, M. Yamamoto and N. Peyghambarian, "Holographic 3D Telepresence Using Large Area Photorefractive Polymer " (Cover story), Nature 468, 80 (2010).
• J. Thomas, R. Norwood, N. Peyghambarian, “Nonlinear Optical Polymers for Photorefractive Applications” (invited review article), J. Mater. Chem. 19, 7476 (2009).
• S. Tay, P-A Blanche, R. Voorakaranam, W. Lin, S. Rokutanda, T. Gu, D. Flores, P. Wang, G. Li, P. St. Hilaire, J. Thomas, R. A. Norwood, M. Yamamoto and N. Peyghambarian, “An updatable holographic three-dimensional display”, Nature 45, 694 (2008).
• J. Thomas, C. Fuentes-Hernandez, M. Yamamoto, K. Cammack, K. Matsumoto, G. A. Walker, S. Barlow, B. Kippelen, G. Meredith, S. R. Marder, N. Peyghambarian, “Bis-triarylamine polymer-based composites for photorefractive applications,” Adv. Mater. 16, 2032 (2004)