Research in Thomas’ lab is focused on developing nanoarchitectured energy conversion and storage devices. Recently, he has 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.

He also studys the optical limiting properties of core-shell plasmonic nanostructures.

Research interests:

• Nanoimprinting techniques
• Nanoarchitectured solar cells
• Nanostructured ultracapacitors
• 3-D display techniques using photorefractive polymers
• Nonlinear optical materials
• Optical limiting devices
• Nanophotonic devices