The Light Laboratory

The laboratory operates two optical microscopes with attached digitizing and image processing equipment. Particles and structures of sizes above 0.5 micrometre can be studied using these instruments. In addition, there is an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) which is capable of mapping structures of size above about 1 nanometre at the surface of materials.

The goals of the work in the light laboratory are to characterize nanoparticles, such as carbon nonotubes and nanocones, and nanostructures in the surface of materials and to contribute to the understanding of complex processes near the borderline to chaos in many-particle systems. Examples of such processes are the motions of colloidal microspheres ("Ugelstadspheres") or nanocarbon particles in magnetic fluids. The activity in this laboratory is partly complementary to the phenomena studied at smaller length scales using neutron scattering.