System for Photonic Adjustment of Nano-scale Aggregated Structures (SPANAS)

System for Photonic Adjustment of Nano-scale Aggregated Structures (SPANAS)

Abstract

Aggregation of nano-scale structures has become a subject of strong interest because the research will eventually elucidate the fundamental issues on the forces that constitute arrays of particles as well as theories on self-assembly of materials, particularly of that of crystalline structures. Equally important is the study of nano-scale colloidal structures for practical applications that describe the mechanisms in photonic crystals, large array systems, switches, micro-fluidic processes and bio-chemical sensing devices. This can, in time, be the future of nano-scale hybrid processing systems and a prelude to photonic computing devices and sensing chips. 

The actual applications, however, are hampered by the lack of controllability of currently developed structures that are both spatially and temporally inflexible. In this project, we aim to develop techniques for the formation and dynamic control of nano-scale assembly and manipulation of particles. The techniques will be based on patented and recently demonstrated fully dynamic multiple-beam optical tweezers for the real-time and simultaneous manipulation and control of large arrays of particles. In addition angular alignment and rotation of birefringent particles can be enforced by the use of a patented parallel light polarisation encoding method.

List of Partners

  • Professor Dag Hanstorp (Project Leader)
    Göteborg University/Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden

  • Dr. Jesper Glückstad (Principal Investigator)
    Risø National Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark

  • Dr. Gordon Love (Principal Investigator)
    University of Durham, United Kingdom

  • Professor Stefan Sinzinger (Principal Investigator)
    Fakultät für Maschinenbau, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany