Naomi J. Halas

About

Naomi J. Halas is the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical & Computer Engineering and also holds professorships in Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Physics & Astronomy. She is the Director of the Laboratory for Nanophotonics. Her academic credentials include a DSc from La Salle University obtained in 2007, a PhD in Physics from Bryn Mawr College earned in 1987, an MA in Physics from Bryn Mawr College in 1984, and a BA in Chemistry from La Salle College in 1980.

Research topics

• Optoelectronics
• Materials science
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Nanotechnology
• Chemical engineering
• Photochemistry
• Environmental science
• Optics
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Light-driven methane dry reforming with single atomic site antenna-reactor plasmonic photocatalysts

  Nature Energy · 2020 · 758 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy: a half-century historical perspective

  Chemical Society Reviews · 2024-12-23 · 276 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has evolved significantly over fifty years into a powerful analytical technique. This review aims to achieve five main goals. (1) Providing a comprehensive history of SERS's discovery, its experimental and theoretical foundations, its connections to advances in nanoscience and plasmonics, and highlighting collective contributions of key pioneers. (2) Classifying four pivotal phases from the view of innovative methodologies in the fifty-year progression:…

  PublisherDOI

• Earth-abundant photocatalyst for H ₂ generation from NH ₃ with light-emitting diode illumination

  Science · 2022 · 261 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Catalysts based on platinum group metals have been a major focus of the chemical industry for decades. We show that plasmonic photocatalysis can transform a thermally unreactive, earth-abundant transition metal into a catalytically active site under illumination. Fe active sites in a Cu-Fe antenna-reactor complex achieve efficiencies very similar to Ru for the photocatalytic decomposition of ammonia under ultrafast pulsed illumination. When illuminated with light-emitting diodes rather than lase…

  DOI

• Monolithic Metal Dimer-on-Film Structure: New Plasmonic Properties Introduced by the Underlying Metal

  Nano Letters · 2020 · 133 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Dimers, two closely spaced metallic nanostructures, are one of the primary nanoscale geometries in plasmonics, supporting high local field enhancements in their interparticle junction under excitation of their hybridized "bonding" plasmon. However, when a dimer is fabricated on a metallic substrate, its characteristics are changed profoundly. Here we examine the properties of a Au dimer on a Au substrate. This structure supports a bright "bonding" dimer plasmon, screened by the metal, and a lowe…

  DOI

• Al@TiO₂ Core–Shell Nanoparticles for Plasmonic Photocatalysis

  ACS Nano · 2022 · 107 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  antenna-reactor provides an earth-abundant solution for the future design of visible-light-driven plasmonic photocatalysts.

  DOI

Recent grants

• REU Site: Research Experiences for Undergraduates at the Rice Quantum Institute

  NSF · $261k · 2008–2011

• NIH Grant U01CA15188601

  NIH · $388k · 2015

• MRI: Development of an Opto-electronic Characterization Instrument

  NSF · $998k · 2010–2013

Frequent coauthors

• Peter Nordlander

  Rice University

  330 shared

• Sarah L. Westcott

  69 shared

• Steven J. Oldenburg

  NanoComposix (United States)

  56 shared

• Oara Neumann

  Rice University

  50 shared

• Richard D. Averitt

  University of California, San Diego

  48 shared

• Rizia Bardhan

  Iowa State University

  48 shared

• Henry O. Everitt

  48 shared

• Hongxing Xu

  Wuhan Institute of Technology

  46 shared

Labs

• Halas LabPI

  The Halas Lab focuses on nanophotonics and plasmonics.

Similar researchers at Rice University

• Boris Yakobsonh-123
• Lane Martinh-86