Nanotechnology

Researchers at PSI have refined a process known as photolithography, which can further advance miniaturisation in information technology.

Empa researchers have developed novel materials made of carbon that exploit quantum effects to exhibit previously unattainable electronic and magnetic properties. The Werner Siemens Foundation is providing the CarboQuant project with a grant of CHF 15 million. Graphene, nanotechnology and quantum science are now widely used at Empa.

Their names are Marianne Liebi Adrian Wanner. Two young researchers who make the nanostructure of macroscopic samples, such as bones or brain tissue, visible in three dimensions using high-resolution images. They achieve this using measurement data obtained with X-rays at the Swiss Light Source at PSI, which is then processed and used for imaging.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an electronic yarn capable of precisely measuring how a person’s body moves. Integrated directly into sportswear or work clothing, the textile sensor predicts the wearer’s exhaustion level during physical exertion.

Researchers at ETH Zurich achieved a shape memory effect for the first time with objects that are only a few nanometers in size. This can be used to manufacture tiny machinery and robotic devices on the nanoscale.

ETH researchers have managed to take three-dimensional pictures of single nanoparticles using extremely short and strong X-ray pulses. In the future this technique could even be used to make 3D-movies of dynamical processes at the nanoscale.