We present all-dielectric gallium phosphide (GaP) nanoantennas as an efficient nanophotonic platform for surface-enhanced second harmonic generation (SHG) and fluorescence (SEF), showing negligible losses in the visible range. Employing single GaP nanodisks, we observe an increase of more than 3 orders of magnitude in the SHG conversion signal in comparison with the bulk. This constitutes an SHG efficiency as large as 0.0002%, which is to the best of our knowledge the highest yet achieved value for a single nano-object in the optical region. Furthermore, we show that GaP dimers with 35 nm gap can enhance up to 3600 times the fluorescence emission of dyes located in the gap of the nanoantenna. This is accomplished by a fluorescence lifetime reduction of at least 22 times, accompanied by a high-intensity field confinement in the gap region. These results open new avenues for low-loss nanophotonics in the optical regime.

We have developed an in situ method to estimate the lateral size of exfoliated nanosheets dispersed in a liquid. Using standard liquid exfoliation and size-selection techniques, we prepared a range of dispersions of graphene, MoS2 and WS2 nanosheets with different mean lateral sizes. The mean nanosheet length was measured using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to vary from ∼40 nm to ∼1 μm. These dispersions were characterized using a standard dynamic light scattering (DLS) instrument. We found a well-defined correlation between the peak of the particle size distribution as outputted by the DLS instrument and the nanosheet length as measured by TEM. This correlation is consistent with the DLS instrument outputting the radius of a sphere with volume equal to the mean nanosheet volume. This correlation allows the mean nanosheet length to be extracted from DLS data.

We have studied the photodynamic properties of novel CdTe quantum dots—methylene blue hybrid photosensitizer. Absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, and fluorescence lifetime imaging of this system reveal efficient charge transfer between nanocrystals and the methylene blue dye. Near-infrared photoluminescence measurements provide evidence for an increased efficiency of singlet oxygen production by the methylene blue dye. In vitro studies on the growth of HepG2 and HeLa cancerous cells were also performed, they point toward an improvement in the cell kill efficiency for the methylene blue-semiconductor nanocrystals hybrid system.