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This light microscope image shows few layers of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a layered crystal held together by van der Waals forces, on a thin gold film. These very thin MoS2 flakes were made by cleaving the natural layered bulk crystal, with the gold film serving as a stabilizer. The color of the ...

This month’s image shows a comet-like particle gracefully navigating the (nano)cosmos. The particle is the result of an annealing experiment with a gold/nickel thin film on a zinc oxide substrate. An unexpected reaction of nickel with zinc oxide produced a tail trailing a gold particle. The image w...

Hopefully your spring cleaning is already done! Here you can see the world’s smallest broom in action. This SEM image shows a small metal tip used for cleaning surfaces on the nanoscale - in this case graphene, the thinnest material in existence (a single atomic layer of carbon). Graphene is cleane...

After the complete opening since the COVID, the annual IMN/CENEM retreat took place again in Kleedorf during 9-12. May. A total number of 32 members attended the workshop. This year, we arranged a poster session besides the oral presentations, allowing master and bachelor students to present and dis...

The transition from the colder winter and spring days to the upcoming summer with higher temperatures is in full swing. While people and nature are happily anticipating the warmer days, higher temperatures can also have a detrimental impact on the environment. Especially in the smallest length scale...

Silvan Englisch and his colleagues from the nanotomography work group recently published a strategy to tackle and overcome the inherent compromise between accessible volume and spatial resolution in nanotomography. The article “Expanding accessible 3D sample size in lab-based X-ray nanotomography wi...

It’s springtime! It’s pollen season! The little guy in the image is a daisy pollen, which grows into a beautiful small flower. The image was acquired in a dual-beam scanning electron microscope / focused ion beam (SEM/FIB) instrument. The eyes and mouth were ion milled and the image was acquired us...

After the absence of a "real" conference since the pandemic, the first major conference in the field, Microscopy Conference (MC2023), took place in 26. Feb. to 2. Mar. in Darmstadt, Germany. Over 900 people attended the conference. We have met colleagues and friends there, and participated many talk...

What looks like the microscopist’s version of the search for the needle in the haystack is in reality a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image depicting several overlapping silver nanowires (AgNWs). These wires exhibit a diameter of roughly 35 nm and a length of several microns. The shown AgNW net...

We recently published the manuscript titled "3D analysis of equally X-ray attenuating mineralogical phases utilizing a correlative tomographic workflow across multiple length scales" in the journal Powder Technology demonstrating an interdisciplinary collaboration between the IMN and the groups of P...