Oara Neumann

About

Oara Neumann is a Research Scientist in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. She earned her PhD in Applied Physics from Rice University in 2013. Prior to that, she obtained an MS in Chemical Physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel in 2004, an MS in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Bucharest, Romania in 1997, and a BA in Chemistry from the University of Bucharest, Romania in 1996. Her research focuses on probing biomolecules using plasmonic nanostructures and on solar steam generation using plasmonic nanoparticles.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Nanotechnology
• Optoelectronics
• Nuclear engineering
• Physics
• Composite material
• Environmental science
• Chromatography
• Chemical engineering
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Solar thermal desalination as a nonlinear optical process

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2019-06-17 · 131 citations

  articleOpen access

  The ever-increasing global need for potable water requires practical, sustainable approaches for purifying abundant alternative sources such as seawater, high-salinity processed water, or underground reservoirs. Evaporation-based solutions are of particular interest for treating high salinity water, since conventional methods such as reverse osmosis have increasing energy requirements for higher concentrations of dissolved minerals. Demonstration of efficient water evaporation with heat localiza…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Resonant energy transfer enhances solar thermal desalination

  Energy & Environmental Science · 2020 · 54 citations

  Water production from solar thermal desalination is limited by the energy consumption of phase change. Resonant heat exchange between matched saline feed and purified distillate flow rates enables optimized recovery of vaporization energy.

  PublisherDOI

• Identifying Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectra with a Raman Library Using Machine Learning

  ACS Nano · 2023-11-01 · 50 citations

  article

  Since its discovery, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has shown outstanding promise of identifying trace amounts of unknown molecules in rapid, portable formats. However, the many different types of nanoparticles or nanostructured metallic SERS substrates created over the past few decades show substantial variability in the SERS spectra they provide. These inconsistencies have even raised speculation that substrate-specific SERS spectral libraries must be compiled for practical use of…

  PublisherDOI

• A 3D Plasmonic Antenna-Reactor for Nanoscale Thermal Hotspots and Gradients

  ACS Nano · 2021 · 47 citations

  Plasmonic nanoantennas focus light below the diffraction limit, creating strong field enhancements, typically within a nanoscale junction. Placing a nanostructure within the junction can greatly enhance the nanostructure's innate optical absorption, resulting in intense photothermal heating that could ultimately compromise both the nanostructure and the nanoantenna. Here, we demonstrate a three-dimensional "antenna-reactor" geometry that results in large nanoscale thermal gradients, inducing lar…

  PublisherDOI

• Routes to Potentially Safer <i>T</i>₁ Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast in a Compact Plasmonic Nanoparticle with Enhanced Fluorescence

  ACS Nano · 2018-08-08 · 45 citations

  article

  Engineering a compact, near-infrared plasmonic nanostructure with integrated image-enhancing agents for combined imaging and therapy is an important nanomedical challenge. Recently, we showed that Au@SiO2@Au nanomatryoshkas (NM) are a highly promising nanostructure for hosting either T1 MRI or fluorescent contrast agents with a photothermal therapeutic response in a compact geometry. Here, we show that a near-infrared-resonant NM can provide simultaneous contrast enhancement for both T1 magnetic…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Naomi J. Halas

  Rice University

  50 shared

• Peter Nordlander

  Rice University

  33 shared

• Surbhi Lal

  Rice University

  11 shared

• Dongmao Zhang

  Mississippi State University

  10 shared

• Pernilla Wittung‐Stafshede

  Chalmers University of Technology

  10 shared

• Felicia Tam

  Hartford Financial Services (United States)

  9 shared

• Ankit Patel

  Rice University

  9 shared

• Aoune Barhoumi

  7 shared

Labs

• Oara Neumann LabPI

Awards & honors

• Peter M and Ruth L Nicholas Postdoctoral Fellowship in Nanot…

Similar researchers at Rice University

• Peter Rosskyh-85
• R. Bruce Weismanh-66
• Jeffrey D. Hartgerinkh-62