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Electrum Laboratory and Albanova Nanofabrication Facility are the two laboratories operated within the KTH node of Myfab – the Swedish research infrastructure for micro- and nanofabrication.

In Kista the Electrum Laboratory with a 1300 m2 cleanroom area and 1500 m2 additional laboratories is outstanding for fabrication and characterization in the nano and micro scale, supporting the whole chain from education, research and development, to prototyping and production.

At KTH Campus the Albanova Nanofabrication Facility has a 285 m2 cleanroom and 60 m2 additional laboratories. With focus on direct writing technology, the Albanova Nanolab is a flexible resource for basic research requiring nanofabrication and nanocharacterization with a wide variety of materials and substrate.

Highlights

Quantum force used to generate colours on a tiny scale

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Peter Modh
/ Categories: Myfab Chalmers

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have discovered a way to observe a quantum force – the Casimir force – in real-time under the microscope by using a simple setup of miniscule gold flakes in a salty aqueous solution. Additionally, beautiful colours emerge from the resonances created between the aligned gold flakes, and the researchers can control the colours simply by adding or removing salt. 

The researchers have continued building on their breakthrough of 2021, which was presented in Nature, when they discovered that micron-sized gold flakes can magically attract out of seemingly nothing in a salt and water solution at room temperature. This happens because of the so-called Casimir force, a faint quantum force that makes objects attract, in combination with the electrostatic force from the electrical charges on the surface of the flakes.

Their new findings are presented in an article recently published in Science Advances. They have now tested larger gold flakes, ranging between 4 to 10 microns, and found that the force works with larger gold flakes than their previous experiments showed. Research group leader Timur Shegai, Professor at the Department of Physics at Chalmers, points out that it was unexpected for him that the gold flakes of the size of up to ten microns, can be trapped and aligned by Casimir interaction with a precision of a few nanometers.

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