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Selective control of light is essential for optical science and technology with numerous applications. Nanophotonic waveguides and integrated couplers have been developed to achieve selective coupling and spatial control of an optical beam…
Many promising approaches for designing interactions of synthetic materials with light involve solid optical monocrystals and nanofabricated photonic crystal structures with spatially periodic variations of refractive index. Although their…
Polypeptide-based diblock copolymers forming either well-defined self-assembled micelles or vesicles after direct dissolution in water or in dichloromethane, have been studied combining light and neutron scattering with electron microscopy…
Responsiveness to multiple stimuli and adaptivity are paramount for designing smart multifunctional materials. In soft, partially ordered systems, these features can often be achieved via self-assembly, allowing for the combination of…
Developing soft robots that can control their own life-cycle and degrade on-demand while maintaining hyper-elasticity is a significant research challenge. On-demand degradable soft robots, which conserve their original functionality during…
The absence of piezoelectricity in silicon makes direct electro-mechanical applications of this mainstream semiconductor impossible. Integrated electrical control of the silicon mechanics, however, would open up new perspectives for on-chip…
Vertebrate animals benefit from a combination of rigidity for structural support and softness for adaptation. Similarly, integrating rigidity and softness can enhance the versatility of soft robotics. However, the challenges associated with…
Nanofibers are microstructured materials that span a broad range of applications from tissue engineering scaffolds to polymer transistors. An efficient method of nanofiber production is Rotary Jet-Spinning (RJS), consisting of a perforated…
Auxiliary nanostructures introduce additional flexibility into optomechanical manipulation schemes. Metamaterials and metasurfaces capable to control electromagnetic interactions at the near-field regions are especially beneficial for…
The design of artificial microswimmers is often inspired by the strategies of natural microorganisms. Many of these creatures exploit the fact that elasticity breaks the time-reversal symmetry of motion at low Reynolds numbers, but this…
Highly aligned nanowire networks are essential for enabling anisotropic optical, electrical, and sensing functionalities in next-generation devices. However, achieving such alignment typically requires complex fabrication methods or…
Robotic stacking of van der Waals heterostructures has been at the verge thanks to the convergence between artificial intelligence (AI) and two-dimensional (2D) materials research. Key ingredients to fulfill this pursuit often include…
Colloidal motors without moving parts can be propelled by self-diffusiophoresis, coupling molecular concentration gradients generated by surface chemical reactions to the velocity slip between solid Janus particles and the surrounding fluid…
Microscopic self-propelled swimmers capable of autonomous navigation through complex environments provide appealing opportunities for localization, pick-up and delivery of micro-and nanoscopic objects. Inspired by motile cells and bacteria,…
Solid-state nanopores offer a powerful platform for nanoscale analysis of individual analytes, including biomolecules and functionalized nanoparticles, by confining them within a precisely defined sensing region. However, their inherently…
Nanostructured electronic devices, such as those based on graphene, are typically grown on top of the insulator SiO2. Their exposure to a flux of small size-selected silver nanoparticles has revealed remarkably selective adhesion: the…
Active colloidal particles provide versatile model systems for exploring non-equilibrium physics in motile matter. To date, most experimental realizations have focused on spherical particles, largely due to fabrication constraints. However,…
We demonstrate that a set of microfabricated electrodes can be coupled to a commercial optical tweezers device, implementing a hybrid electro-optical trap with multiple functionalities to manipulate micro/nanoparticles in suspension. Our…
Optical microrobots (OPTOBOTs) have garnered significant interest, particularly in the medical field, due to their potential for precise cell manipulation in various biological studies and microsurgical applications. Previously described…
Molecules with versatile functionalities and well-defined structures, can serve as building blocks for extreme nanoscale devices. This requires their precise integration into functional heterojunctions, most commonly in the form of…