David Schilter (Editor of Nature Reviews Chemistry) This century has seen increasing pressure on academics to not only conduct novel and relevant research, but also to publish it in journals of international repute. Thus, even with exciting results in hand,…
Christoforos Moutafis (University of Manchester) Magnetic skyrmions are quasi-particle nanoscale magnetic spin configurations with a whirling vortex-like spin structure (Fig. 1a) with distinct topological properties [1,2] and intriguing dynamics [3,4]. The recent demonstrations from various groups of room temperature chiral…
Johann Michler (EMPA Thun) We developed recently techniques to probe mechanical properties at small length scales under extreme conditions of temperature, at high strain rates and under control of humidity. I combination with in-situ observation techniques such as electron backscatter…
Kunal Masania (Complex Materials, D-MATL) Nature utilises hierarchy at multiple length scales to structure relatively weak building blocks into complex shapes with outstanding mechanical performance. Despite successful research aimed at implementing biological design principles in synthetic materials, man-made manufacturing technologies…
Rachel Grange (D-PHYS) Nonlinear optics is present in our daily life with many applications, e.g. light sources for microsurgery or green laser pointer. All of them use bulk materials such as glass fibres or crystals. Generating nonlinear effects from materials…
Dear members of SAM, We are happy to invite you to the yearly SAM General Assembly to vote a new board, discuss association matters and bring in ideas for the coming year. Join us, tell us what you liked so far and…
The Scientific Staff Association at the Department of Materials (SAM) invites all female doctoral students and Postdocs of the D-MATL and of the associated groups to the Material Girls Night. Especially welcome are group members of the Professors Bona, Burgert,…
Silke Schön (FIRST Lab) Today, micro- and nanofabrication is not only dedicated to semiconductor devices anymore. Besides laser diodes and transistors, microfluidic devices are used as microarrays for DNA studies or to investigate microorganisms in waste water. Micropatterned structures allow…
Celestino Padeste (PSI) Photon sources such as synchrotrons and X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) offer great opportunities for the material sciences. I will present some examples from the field of polymer technology including our work on lithographic polymer grafting, which…
Henning Galinski (Laboratory for Nanometallurgy, D-MATL) Today, optical metamaterials and metasurfaces are produced using lithography techniques and typically cannot be scaled above the gram level. In addition, the optical response of metamaterials is often designed for a specific polarization, which…