Structures and dynamics on the nanoscale
Besides controlled layered architecture with thin-films for, e.g., flexible solar cells, control of self-assembly processes and tailored fabrication of three-dimensional nanomaterials leads to a wealth of new structures and devices.
Nanofabrication
Nanostructures are defining elements in nature. Major material properties depend on structural and electronic as well as dynamic properties on the scale of a few and up to 100 nm. We create nanostructures by both bottom-up and top-down approaches.
- We use electron and focused ion beam lithography to fabricate individual nanostructures of well-defined geometry, such as nanophotonic waveguides, nanoantenna arrays or templates for particle assembly.
- We use site-selective defect engineering using Helium ion beam lithography to dope and manipulate material properties.
- We use self-assembly of organic molecules to create continuous and discontinuous thin films such as needle-like organic nanoaggregates for plasmonic applications.
Related content
-
![]()
Micro- and nanofabrication
Structure formation
Micro- and nanofabrication for structuring a wide range of materials down to 5 nm on substrate size up to 4'' in size
-
![]()
Helium ion microscope
ORION Nanofab laboratory
Visit the laboratory page of our Zeiss Orion NanoFab facility consisting of a multibeam ion microscope dedicated to micro- and nanofabrication and imaging.
Sensing
Our goal is to increase product safety and resource management by developing novel sensors with high selectivity and resolution. We develop technology to sort, arrange and detect nanoparticles to study nanotoxicity. We functionalise the surface of particles to detect biological agents and viruses, e.g., in water samples.
Related content
Nanofluids for cooling
The increase in heat transfer rate in various applications and devices, especially high-power density electronic devices, has become an important issue. Mostly heat exchangers are used to remove the dissipated heat from the system and it has been shown that the heat transfer coefficient can be significantly increased by the addition of nanoparticles to the cooling fluid. These inhomogeneous mixtures are known as nanofluids. We are studying nanofluids based on commercial but also home-made metal oxide nanoparticles to optimise multi-phase flow boiling behaviour in microfluidic heat exchangers and porous membranes.
