Facilities

This talk highlights Bruker's activities within the MESA+ Nanolab, focusing on the wafer-scale fabrication of advanced scanning probes through 3D nanoshaping techniques. These processes enable the creation of complex nanoscale features with high precision. A central example is the FluidFM™ probe—an innovative technology that integrates nanofluidics with atomic force microscopy (AFM), enabling applications ranging from single-cell manipulation to nanoscale material delivery. The fabrication process flow of FluidFM™ probes will be presented, including an overview of the required cleanroom infrastructure and key equipment available at MESA+ Nanolab that enable the fabrication of these complex probes. Special attention is given to sacrificial layer techniques used to form integrated fluidic channels, and (the Twente famous) corner lithography for high precision 3D tip fabrication. In addition to the fabrication aspects, the talk will showcase various applications of FluidFM™ probes, demonstrating their versatility and performance. By sharing insights into process integration and equipment capabilities, this talk aims to inform and inspire researchers and engineers involved in MEMS/NEMS fabrication.

The focused ion beam (FIB) is a diverse and interesting piece of equipment. As well as being a high-resolution SEM in its own right, it is capable of precision patterning using a gallium ion beam.

FIB is the go-to technique for making ultra-thin samples for TEM but is capable of so much more. Including, but not limited to, lithography, patterning by removal or deposition, cross-sectioning, tomography and the lift-out of chunks or manipulation of small samples. The MESA+ FIB also has a STEM detector to give fast, nanometre-resolution images of cross-sections or small particle such as protein nanocages and inorganic nanocrystals. 

This talk will be a whirlwind tour of a selection of capabilities of the MESA+ FIB, hopefully inspiriting you to ask questions and come up with your own fantastic ways to apply this most intriguing microscope.

Innovative methods to probe buried interfaces and heterogeneous interactions under realistic reaction conditions are essential for advancing energy and catalytic materials. The new NWO-funded operando HAXPES user facility at MESA+ is a Near-Ambient Pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) system equipped with a tri-color X-ray source. This enables depth-selective operando and in situ analysis of solid–liquid, solid–gas, and solid–solid interfaces using soft, tender, and hard X-rays.

In this talk, we will present case studies that demonstrate the system’s capabilities, from fundamental thin-film studies to applications in catalysis and electrochemistry. We will highlight environment- and temperature-dependent XPS by tracking the oxidation and reduction of FeₓOᵧ. In addition, we will showcase the unique ability to probe solid/liquid interfaces, exemplified by studies of Pt in liquid electrolyte, where surface oxidation occurs in the absence of bulk oxidation.

The operando HAXPES user facility is open to researchers across the MESA+ community and beyond.

Suppose you want to observe a chemical reaction that occurs at high temperature and pressure. You could use a thick-walled stainless-steel reactor, but it is somewhat of a challenge to look inside this reactor and see what is going on, especially when the reaction is taking place. How could you solve this issue?

Our approach: miniaturization. By etching tiny channels into a silicon wafer and bonding a glass wafer on top, we can make microfluidic reactors capable of withstanding at least 225°C and ~200 bar using well-developed techniques found in the MESA+ cleanroom. In my research, I use these reactors to develop new methods of studying olivine dissolution that exceed the state-of-the-art in terms of experimental duration and time resolution. In my talk, I will discuss the fabrication of the microreactors, and how we use these devices to measure dissolution rates using in-flow fluorescence spectroscopy and optical flow algorithms.