MCN is holding talks from two speakers on Thursday 14 December – Dr Helmut Schift, Head of the Polymer Nanotechnology Group at INKA-PSI in Switzerland, and Dr Adrian Cernescu, Senior Process Engineer at neaspec GmbH and expert in nanoscale optical applications.

Dr Helmut Schift: Helmut is a pioneer of nanoimprint lithography – his talk will feature recent developments made by his team, including 3D patterning capabilities such as direct writing laser lithography (two-photon polymerization).

Helmut and INKA-PSI develop novel methods for topological and chemical surface patterns, in particular using nanoimprint lithography and other moulding techniques. The group develop technology, tools, and processes to provide a toolbox for replication processes needed for academic research and industrial applications.

Dr Adrian Cernescu: Adrian will be discussing how scattering-type Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy (s-SNOM) can be used to provide imaging and spectroscopy at 10nm spatial resolution. He will introduce s-SNOM, and how it can be used to overcome the diffraction limit of conventional light microscopy or spectroscopy.

The technique enables optical measurements at a spatial resolution of 10nm not only at visible frequencies but also in the infrared or terahertz spectral range. Several applications of nano-imaging and spectroscopy on different materials will be presented.