MESA+ Institute

Nanotechnology impacts many aspects of our lives. The Netherlands is a leading player in this exciting field. Key to safeguard this position is to keep engaging talent and develop our infrastructure network, organized in NanoLabNL. NanoLabNL provides an open-access infrastructure for R&D in nanotechnology. It combines facilities in Twente, Delft, Eindhoven, Groningen and Amsterdam. MESA+ chairs the NanoLabNL initiative.

When gold nano particles in water are illuminated by a laser, they get very hot: well above the boiling point of water. The formation of vapour bubbles caused by this, is well-known. New experiments, however, using a very high speed camera, now show that before this, a bubble is formed that is much larger and, subsequently, explodes violently. For energy conversion of the particles to the liquid they are in, this discovery of early phase dynamics is very important. Researchers of the University of Twente and the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands now publish these new results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS).

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MESA+ has a 1250 m2 state-of-the-art NanoLab which consists of a Cleanroom and Analysis facilities. Research on the nanometre scale needs a laboratory with extreme specifications, whereas the NanoLab is constructed to meet such high standards. Any influencing effects from the environment, such as vibration and electromagnetic disturbances, are virtually non-existent. The environmental conditions inside the building, such as temperature, humidity and the influence of light are extremely stable. Discover our NanoLab in 360°!

The winner of the photo contest of the first quarter of 2018 is this picture of a pedestal disk resonator for high Q lasers, titled 'stand tall, stand proud'. It was made by Michel de Goede from the Optical Sciences group. Click the picture to see the other entries.

 For MESA+ 2017 was a scientifically interesting and successful year, and a year of looking ahead to the future. With a new focus on the institute's long-term strategy, we have given an impulse for growth and development in the upcoming years. Because we believe that nanotechnology offers nearly endless opportunities for answers to the grand challenges we are facing.

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Three photonics researchers at the UT's MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology talk about the opportunities offered by photonics, and explain the strength of the university’s photonics ecosystem.