News and Highlights

Norte Lab Awarded ERC Starting Grant

Our lab was awarded a 2.1M€ ERC Starting Grant which will allow us to explore new types of nanotechnology with extreme-aspect-ratios. These optomechanical components are aiming to open new ventures in material science, space exploration, and quantum sensing.

A trip to the stars?

TU Delta features our lab's aims to propel microchip satellites with lightweight sails to the nearest star! This will require materials unlike anything found in nature or made by science today.

Cover of Advanced Materials' Rising Stars

Our work was highlighted on the cover of Advanced Materials' Rising Stars Issue!

Spiderweb Sensors Published in Advanced Materials

Inspired by spiderwebs and guided by machine learning, our team at the TU Delft managed to create some of the world's best vibrational sensors at the nanoscale. Our results have been published in Advanced Materials' Rising Stars Issue.

EM Symposium 1st Place Poster Winner

Andrea Cupertino won the 1st poster prize at the 24th Engineering Mechanics symposium out of 110 posters. The poster was about our recent publication on machine learning and nanotechnology to develop a new class of nanomechanical resonators with unprecedented quality factor (https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.04809).

Limitless Space Institute Grant

We were recently awarded a I2 Strategic Grant from the Limitless Space Institute to develop new types of nanophotonics for space applications using machine learning algorithms.

Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition: Honorable Mention

Our proposal uses information theory to link Casimir experiments with the universality of free-fall. The hope is to use compliant microchip technology to make high-precision measurements of gravity at the small scale.

Room temperature quantum tech featured in PRL

Check out how we managed to cool the motion of millimeter-long suspended waveguide resonators from room temperature to near absolute zero (1.2 mK) using only laser light to probe for signs of macroscopic quantum properties. No cryogenics needed!

NWO ORC Grant

Our proposal "Quantum microscopy: A new tool for future technologies" has been granted by NWO. We will investigate magnetic imaging based on defects in diamond with a team that includes Toeno van der Sar, Tim Taminiau, Tjerk Oosterkamp, TNO, Applied Nanolayers BV and Leiden Spin Imaging BV.

Scientific American Special Edition

Our work on room temperature optomechanical quantum experiments is featured in a special edition of Scientific American (April 2019 issue).

ATTRACT EU Grant

We are very happy to be one of 170 projects selected for 17 million euros in funding for developing breakthrough technologies in the domain of detection & imaging across Europe from ATTRACT EU.

NWO Start-Up Grant

Our lab received an NWO Start-Up Grant to investigate the Casimir effect between superconductor with new type of scanning tunneling microscope experiment. These experiments aim to uncover the interplay between two famous quantum effects.

Cover of Optica

Our collaboration with Markus Aspelmeyer & Simon Groeblacher's groups allow us to measure the motion of optically levitated nanospheres with a nanocavity. Our work was featured on the cover of Optica.

Is Gravity Quantum?

Our experiment to measure the Casimir force between superconductors for the first time is featured in Scientific American.

New Photonic Materials for Light-sails

Our photonic crystal mirrors are now some of the highest-aspect-ratio optical nanostructures ever made. The idea is to implement these ultra-thin mirrors as light-sails for future space missions beyond our solar system. Our work was highlighted in Laser Focus World.
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