DESCRIPTION

The INL Nanophotonics & Bioimaging open access user facility features cutting-edge optical instrumentation and the know-how required for characterization of material and life sciences samples. The INL expert team provides knowledge in the analysis of light-matter interactions at various scales: reaching from the detection of individual fluorescent molecules or nanoparticles, to the high-resolution label-free and fluorescence-based imaging of fixed and live cells, e.g. in 2D cell models or tissues.
Furthermore we are experienced to design optically active nanomaterials and characterize e.g. plasmonic interaction effects or surface enhanced Raman effects (SERS) and study optical properties of metamaterials.

Our Open Access User Facility provides support in  training, service measurements on spectroscopy and imaging equipments, as well as complementary services, such as specimen/sample preparation, flow cytometry, spectral or image analysis.

Additionally, our researchers are developing new generation imaging and spectroscopy solutions that:

• Are characterized by multimodality, for faster and more comprehensive analysis of your samples and allowing correlative imaging analysis
• Involve the use of INL-developed innovative contrast agents
• Allow optical super-resolution – surpassing the typical few hundreds of nanometer resolution in diffraction-limited classical microscopy and approaching the nanometer scale.

Our interdisciplinary team of physicists, biologists, biomedical engineers and chemists is continuously developing new nanophotonics techniques that shall help advance our understanding of complex biological and non-biological matter. These partly unique tools are made available to the community via its access through the Nanophotonics & Bioimaging Facility or in direct contact with the Head of Nanophotonics and Bioimaging Corporate Facility.

Examples of research fields to which the researchers of the INL Nanophotonics department contributes are:

• Toxicology
• Drug delivery systems
• Plasmonic interaction effects and metamaterials
• Nanomedicine
• Biophysics
• Optical and plasmonic sensing technologies
• Quantum Sensing Technologies
• Development of super resolution imaging techniques
• Development of combined microscopies (topography/fluorescence)
• Development of optical active structures for technological applications (LEDs, solar cells)

Techniques available