Date: 08.12.2023, Time: 15:30h

Location: Kleiner Physikhörsaal N020, Faculty of Physics
The talk will also be streamed online.

Peer Fischer
Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg
Institute for Molecular Systems Engineering and Advanced Materials, Heidelberg University

Many functional systems rely on 3d structures both at the smallest of scales for interesting devices, as well as at the scale of biological cells where the 3d environment is crucial in determining the functioning of tissues. However, the fabrication and assembly of three-dimensional objects is often time-consuming and cumbersome. In this talk, I hope to show that this need not be the case. I will describe a versatile physical vapor deposition process that permits us to obtain large numbers of designer micro- and nanostructures with defined shape and material composition in a short parallel fabrication process. This opens up a number of applications that range from nanorobotics applications, including electric-field controlled propulsion in fluids with nanometric precision, to the growth of catalytically-active nanoporous films from an array of materials that could thus far not be directly fabricated. I will also describe how at slightly larger scales holographic techniques in conjunction with ultrasound enable the direct assembly of 3d objects in 'one-shot' from solution. Apart from the direct assembly of cellular structures, potential applications encompass organoids and tissue engineering.