Far-Field Optical Nanothermometry in Challenging Environments: Super-Resolution and Single-Particle Approaches

Modern electronic, data storage, and energy conversion devices increasingly combine nanoscale dimensions with challenging operating conditions, including extreme temperatures, high pressures, large electromagnetic fields, and harsh chemical environments. In tandem, thermal properties play an outsize role in determining the overall performance of these technologies. Engineering improved performance thus requires the ability to visualize heat flow using non- invasive thermometry techniques with nanoscale spatial resolution. Conventional far-field optical techniques enable non-contact measurements, but such approaches fundamentally lack the spatial resolution required to resolve nanoscale temperature heterogeneities. This talk will introduce two novel approaches to overcome this challenge. The first portion of the talk will cover high-resolution single-point temperature measurements based on the luminescence emitted by an individual nanoparticle placed precisely at the location of interest using atomic force microscope nanomanipulation. The second portion will present progress towards an optical super-resolution nanothermometry technique that allows for continuous temperature mapping with nanoscale spatial resolution.

Andrea Pickel received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (2014) and her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley (2019), where she was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship and a UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Fellowship. She then joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester as an Assistant Professor. Current research in her group focuses on leveraging the unique properties of luminescent materials to develop nanothermometry techniques with exceptional spatial and temporal resolution and thermal metrology for use at high temperatures and in harsh chemical environments. Andrea is the recipient of an American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF) Doctoral New Investigator Award, a University of Rochester Furth Fund Award, and an NSF CAREER Award.

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