News & Events

Here you can find the latest news on my research.

Feb 23, 2023

News&Views Article on counteracting Casimir attraction

A News&Views article by Victoria Esteso Carrizo in Nature Physics is out now on how to counterbalance undesired Casimir attractions. The current field of micro and nano systems experiences hurdles when developing nanoscopic elements that experience un... (Link)

Feb 13, 2023

Falko Schmidt among 2023 OPTICA Ambassadors

Falko Schmidt has been announced as one of the 10 OPTICA Ambassador for 2023. This award goes to highly exceptional members of the OPTICA society in optics and photonics, who have shown their dedication in volunteerism and mentorship. Their role is to... (Link)

Feb 1, 2023

Falko Schmidt awarded prestige SNSF Postdoctoral Fellowship at ETH

Falko Schmidt has been awarded a prestige PostDoctoral Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for an ambitious project on mapping 3D optofluidic flows. The research performed at the Nanophotonics Systems Laboratory under Prof. Rom... (Link)

Nov 7, 2022

New article published in Nature Physics

Tunable critical Casimir forces counteract Casimir-Lifshitz attraction Falko Schmidt, Agnese Callegari, Abdallah Daddi-Moussa-Ider, Battulga Munkhbat, Ruggero Verro, Timur Shegai, Mikael Käll, Hartmut Löwen, Andrea Gambassi, Giovanni Volpe Nat Phys (2... (Link)

Nov 6, 2022

Falko Schmidt awarded as My Green Lab Ambassador

Falko Schmidt has been named the My Green Lab Ambassador for the completion of the training on more sustainable laboratory methods. My Green Lab is a non-profit organization whose goal it is to raise awareness to current laboratory methods by giving ... (Link)

Aug 21, 2022

Presentation by Falko Schmidt on "Tunable critical Casimir forces counteract Casimir–Lifshitz attraction" at the CMD29, Manchester, UK

Falko Schmidt is presenting his work on Critical Casimir Forces in NEMS at the Condensed Matter Division CMD29 in Manchester, UK. CMD29 is a large international conference covering all aspects of condensed matter physics. Its 29th iteration of the Co...

Aug 1, 2022

Presentation by Falko Schmidt on "A monolithic nanophotonic system based on single-photon emitters" at the Complex Nanophotonics Science Camp

Falko Schmidt is presenting first results on his work on integrated photonics at the Complex Nanophotonics Science Camp in London, UK. The Science Camp takes places between the 2nd till 5th of August at the Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park nea...

Jun 26, 2022

Presentation by Falko Schmidt on "Self-organisation of colloidal systems in the presence of fluctuations" at Erice, IT

Falko Schmidt is presenting the latest research findings on self-organized colloidal system using critical phenomena and light at the Artifical and living matter workshop in Erice Italy. The workshop takes places between the 26th of June and 1st of Ju...

Jun 24, 2022

Visit to CNR Messina and presentation by Falko Schmidt

Falko Schmidt is visiting the CNR Messina and the research group around Onofrio Marago specializing on optical trapping and active matter. Falko Schmidt will give a presentation about his previous work on optofluidics. Title: Optofluidic Manipulation...

Jun 13, 2022

Presentation by Falko Schmidt on "Integrated Photonics for single photon microscopy"

Falko Schmidt is presenting preliminary work on integrated photonics at the Humboldt-meets-Leibniz (HmL) networking meeting in Hannover, Germany. The HmL meeting takes places between the 11th till 13th of June at the Xplanatorium at Herrenhäuser Gärt...

Feb 23, 2022

New preprint published in arXiv

A new preprint of our latest work on "Tunable critical Casimir forces counteract Casimir-Lifshitz attraction" has just been published on arXiv. Link to article: https://activematter.owlstown.net/publications/7429

Feb 17, 2022

Falko Schmidt wins best Poster prize at the WE-Heraeus-Seminar

Falko Schmidt wins together with Agnese Callegari the best Poster prize at the WE-Heraeus-Seminar on fluctuation-induced forces for there joint work on QED Casimir vs. critical Casimir forces. Falko Schmidt presented the experimental part of this work...

Jan 26, 2022

Presentation by Falko Schmidt on " Casimir-Lifshitz forces vs. Critical Casimir forces" at WE-Heraeus-Seminar

Falko Schmidt is presenting the latest research findings as part of the WE-Heraeus-Seminar on fluctuation-induced force taken place from 14.-18.02.2022. His presentation will be about "Casimir-Lifshitz forces vs. Critical Casimir forces: Trapping and ...

Jan 5, 2022

New article published in "Physik in unserer Zeit"

Motorisierte Tröpfchen Hartmut Löwen, Jens Grauer, Falko Schmidt, Benno Liebchen Phys. unserer Zeit 53(1), pages: 9-10 (2022) (in German only) Setzt man verschiedene Kolloidpartikelsorten einem nahezu kritischen Lösungsmittel unter Einfluss von Lase... (Link)

Dec 23, 2021

Falko Schmidt selected as participant of "Humboldt meets Leibniz" 2022

Falko Schmidt has been selected to attain the prestigious "Humboldt meets Leibniz" networking event on all optics related topics from the 12th June till 15th June 2022 at Herrenhausen Palace in Hannover, Germany. According to the event's motto, "Con...

Dec 2, 2021

Presentation by Falko Schmidt on "Active matter in a critical state" at ETH Zurich

Falko Schmidt is talking about his research on Active matter in a critical state: How micro- and nanoparticles can self-assemble and be actively driven using optofluidics, optical trapping and pN forces at ETH Zurich at 16.00 on 02.12.2021.

Nov 26, 2021

Falko Schmidt visits Quidant's lab at ETH Zürich

Falko Schmidt visits the Nanophotonics Systems Laboratory of Romain Quidant's group between 02.12. - 03.12.2021. He will present his research on light-activated micro- and nano systems.

Nov 11, 2021

Presentation by Falko Schmidt for the Nanomotor Mini talk series

Active droploids A new class of self-assembled and feedback-driven superstructures Jens Grauer, Falko Schmidt, Jesùs Pineda, Benjamin Midtvedt, Hartmut Löwen, Giovanni Volpe, Benno Liebchen Nanomotor Mini Talk Series hosted by Nanomotor Update Date: ...

Oct 25, 2021

Press release on "Active Droploids"

The article "Active Droploids" has been featured in a press release by the University of Gothenburg. In English: Feedback creates a new class of active biomimetic materials. In Swedish: Feedback möjliggör en ny form av aktiva biomimetiska material. O...

Oct 15, 2021

Behind-the-paper story on "Active Droploids"

The behind-the-paper story about our latest article in Nature Communication is published in the Nature portfolio under the Device & Materials Engineering Community. This is the story about how we came to discover a complete new material system starti... (Link)

Oct 14, 2021

Active Droploids published in Nature Communications

Active droploids Jens Grauer, Falko Schmidt, Jesús Pineda, Benjamin Midtvedt, Hartmut Löwen, Giovanni Volpe & Benno Liebchen Nat. Commun. 12, Article number: 6005 (2021) Active matter comprises self-driven units, such as bacteria and synthetic microsw... (Link)

Sep 3, 2021

Presentation by Falko Schmidt at DoKDoK Jena

Dynamics of an Active Nanoparticle in an Optical Trap Falko Schmidt, Hana Sipova-Jungova, Mikael Käll, Alois Würger, Giovanni Volpe Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany 3 September 2021, 14:00-14.20 Active matter systems in non-equilibrium co... (Link)

Apr 16, 2021

Presentation by Falko Schmidt at OSA-OMA-2021

Dynamics of an Active Nanoparticle in an Optical Trap Falko Schmidt, Hana Sipova-Jungova, Mikael Käll, Alois Würger, Giovanni Volpe Submitted as OSA-OMA-2021, AF1D.2 Contribution Date: 16 April Time: 12:30 CEST Short Abstract We investigate a nanopart...

Apr 15, 2021

Falko Schmidt nominated for a Student Paper Prize at the Biophotonics Congress

Falko Schmidt has been nominated by the Optical Society of America for a Student Paper Prize for Optical Manipulation and its Applications among three other finalists. He will present his work on the Dynamics of an Active Nanoparticle in an Optical Tra...

Apr 13, 2021

Invited Talk of Falko Schmidt at Sci-talk.org

Non-equilibrium properties of an active nanoparticle in a harmonic potential Falko Schmidt Video Presentation for Sci-Talk.org Short Abstract We investigate a nanoparticle inside an optical trap and driven away from equilibrium by self-induced concen... (Link)

Mar 26, 2021

"Non-equilibrium properties of an active nanoparticle in a harmonic potential" published in Nature Communications

Non-equilibrium properties of an active nanoparticle in a harmonic potential Falko Schmidt, Hana Šípová-Jungová, Mikael Käll, Alois Würger & Giovanni Volpe Nature Communications 12, 1902 (2021) doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22187-z arXiv: 2009.08393 Activ...

Mar 10, 2021

Invited talk by Falko Schmidt "From PhD to CEO" organised by the OSA

From PhD to CEO Falko Schmidt Online, 3:00 PM CET Invited talk to the webinar series "From PhD to CEO" hosted by the OSA and EPS. During this talk I am describing my path from research to creating my spin-off company Lucero AB, and the challenges and ...

Feb 11, 2021

Presentation by Falko Schmidt on QED Casimir vs Critical Casimir at MPI Stuttgart,

QED Casimir vs Critical Casimir Forces: Trapping and Releasing of metal flake particles Falko Schmidt, Agnese Callegari, Giovanni Volpe (online at) MPI Stuttgart, Germany 11 February 2021, 14:30-16.00 We propose a mechanism for restoration of collaps...

Jan 15, 2021

Falko Schmidt defended his PhD Thesis in Physics

Falko Schmidt defended his PhD Thesis titled "Active Matter in a Critical State: From passive building blocks to active molecules, engines and active droplets" in Physics on Friday, the 15th of January 2021. The disputation took place at 9 a.m., in PJ...

Oct 14, 2020

Presentation by Falko Schmidt on Career Transition from Research to Entrepreneurship

From basic research to founding a startup company: A personal journey to the unknown Falko Schmidt Career Seminar, Online, University of Gothenburg, Sweden 14 October 2020, 11:30-13:00 26 November 2020, 11:30-13:00 I am currently a PhD student at...

Sep 23, 2020

Invited talk by Falko Schmidt at the International Digital Healthtech, Healthcare and Pharmacy Conference 2020

Fully automated optofluidic manipulation of single cells for advancing the global healthcare industry towards personalized medicine Falko Schmidt Online, 23 September 2020 12:15 PM Abstract: Covid-19 has shown us that individuals are affected very dif... (Link)

Jun 22, 2020

Poster presentation by Falko Schmidt on "Dynamics of an active nanoparticle in an optical trap"

Dynamics of an active nanoparticle in an optical trap Falko Schmidt, Hana Šípová-Jungová, Mikael Käll, Alois Würger, Giovanni Volpe Twitter Link: here. Active matter systems in non-equilibrium conditions have recently gained great interest from many ...

Dec 16, 2019

Falko Schmidt visits Cicho's lab at University of Leipzig

On Monday, the 16th of December, Falko Schmidt, will visit Frank Cichos’ lab at the University of Leipzig. He will present latest research on a nanoscopic particle in a harmonic trap.

Dec 13, 2019

Falko Schmidt visits Simmchen lab at TU Dresden

On Friday, the 13th of December, Falko Schmidt, will visit Juliane Simmchen’s lab at the Technical University of Dresden. He will present results on Liquid-Liquid-Phase Separation a project that is currently in collaboration with their lab.

Dec 5, 2019

Poster presentation by Falko Schmidt at the Light at the Nanoscale conference

Light-induced phase separation power novel micro machines Falko Schmidt, and Giovanni Volpe Light at the Nanoscale Conference, Chalmers University, Gothenburg, Sweden 5 December 2019, 16:30-18:30. Phase separation is a phenomena that commonly exists i...

Jul 17, 2019

Anomalous Diffusion Measurement with Neural Networks published in Phys Rev E

Measurement of Anomalous Diffusion Using Recurrent Neural Networks Stefano Bo, Falko Schmidt, Ralf Eichborn & Giovanni Volpe Physical Review E 100(1), 010102(R) (2019) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.100.010102 arXiv: 1905.02038 Anomalous diffusion occurs in ...

Jun 28, 2019

Falko Schmidt attends the 69th Lindau Nobel laureate meeting

Falko Schmidt has been selected to attain the 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting in Lindau, Germany from the 30th June till 5th July 2019. The Lindau meeting is a platform where 600 young scientists around the world meet former Nobel laureates (as w...

Jun 10, 2019

Falko Schmidt presented his PhD half-time seminar

About mid-way through his PhD, Falko Schmidt presented his past research activities and gave an outlook on his future projects. The topics range from miniaturised machines to self-assembled active molecules activated by light to machine-learning techni...

Apr 16, 2019

Presentation by Falko Schmidt at the OSA Biophotonics Congress, Tucson

Light-driven Assembly and Optical Manipulation of Active Colloidal Molecules Falko Schmidt, Benno Liebchen, Hartmut Loewen & Giovanni Volpe OSA Biophotonics Congress, Tucson (AZ), USA 16 April 2019 Active matter, consisting of self-propelled unit...

Mar 26, 2019

Presentation by Falko Schmidt at the Gothenburg Nanophotonic Symposium

The first symposium on the topic of Nanophotonics brings together researchers from physics and chemistry departments in Gothenburg to present their work and share ideas. Organised by Dr. R. Verre from the Bionanophotonic group at Chalmers University...

Mar 7, 2019

Active Colloidal Molecules published in J. Chem. Phys.

Light-controlled Assembly of Active Colloidal Molecules Falko Schmidt, Benno Liebchen, Hartmut Löwen & Giovanni Volpe Journal of Chemical Physics 150(9), 094905 (2019) doi: 10.1063/1.5079861 arXiv: 1801.06868 Thanks to a constant energy input, activ...

Mar 6, 2019

Talk by F. Schmidt at APS March Meeting 2019, Boston

Light-driven Assembly of Motile Colloidal Clusters from Immotile Building Blocks Falko Schmidt, Benno Liebchen, Hartmut Löwen & Giovanni Volpe APS March Meeting 2019, Boston, USA 6 March 2019 at 8:36-8:48 a.m., Room 258B Active matter, consisting of...

Jun 8, 2018

Talk by Falko Schmidt at IONS Scandinavia 2018, Copenhagen

Light-controlled Assembly of Active Colloidal Molecules Falko Schmidt, Benno Liebchen, Hartmut Löwen & Giovanni Volpe IONS Scandinavia 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark 5-9 June 2018 We experimentally demonstrate the light-controlled assembly of active coll...

Mar 12, 2018

Microscopic Critical Engine featured in APS Physics

Our recent article Microscopic engine powered by critical remixing by Falko Schmidt, Alessandro Magazzù, Agnese Callegari, Luca Biancofiore, Frank Cichos & Giovanni Volpe, published in Physical Review Letters 120(6), 068004 (2018) has been featured in ...

Mar 8, 2018

Talk by Falko Schmidt at the APS March Meeting, Los Angeles, 2018

Microscopic Engine Powered by Critical Demixing Falko Schmidt, Alessandro Magazzu, Agnese Callegari, Luca Biancofiore, Frank Cichos & Giovanni Volpe APS March Meeting 2018, Los Angeles (CA), USA 5-9 March 2018 During the last few decades much effort...

Feb 12, 2018

Microscopic Critical Engine featured in Phys.Org

Feb 12, 2018

Microscopic Critical Engine featured in Optics & Photonics News

Feb 1, 2018

Microscopic Critical Engine published in Phys. Rev. Lett.

Microscopic engine powered by critical demixing Falko Schmidt, Alessandro Magazzù, Agnese Callegari, Luca Biancofiore, Frank Cichos & Giovanni Volpe Physical Review Letters 120(6), 068004 (2018) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.068004 arXiv: 1705.03317 ...

Dec 1, 2016

Falko Schmidt starts his PhD

Falko Schmidt starts his PhD at the Physics Department of the University of Gothenburg on 1 December 2016. He has a Master degree from the Physics Department of Leipzig University with a Master thesis on the realisation of a microscopic critical eng...