Laboratory for Micro and Nanotechnology (LMN)

Single particle studies play an important role in understanding their physical and chemical properties. Electrostatic trapping is on one such robust method that allows for a contact-free high-throughput single nanoparticle trapping in an aqueous environment in a nanofluidic device. However, finding an optimum design solution for stiffer single particle trapping for different particles is a cumbersome process. This work presents all crucial geometrical parameters required to tune the trapping efficiency of the device, and their impact. Furthermore, the work enables to quickly identify and optimize nanofluidic devices design for stronger single particle confinement using numerical simulations, saving the massive experimental time required for device optimization.

During the past decade, scientists have put high effort to achieve sub-10 nm resolution in X-ray microscopy. Recent developments in high-resolution lithography-based diffractive optics, combined with the extreme stability and precision of the PolLux and HERMES scanning X-ray microscopes, resulted now in a so far unreached resolution of seven nanometers in scanning soft X-ray microscopy. Utilizing this highly precise microscopy technique with the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism effect, dimensionality effects in an ensemble of interacting magnetic nanoparticles can be revealed.