My research is about the light-matter interaction of micro and nano systems. I study how light can be utilized to manipulate the motion of small particles and create fast fluid flows. This work investigates the fundamental aspects of light, temperature and hydrodynamics. Our studies employ inert materials such as colloids to induce self-propulsion, self-assembly and manipulation across multiple length scales. This is a highly interdisciplinary field involving photonics, materials science and biomimetics.

In particular my research involves:

This addresses current scientific and technological challenges in developing novel methods, for example, in smart drug delivery systems, automated search-and-rescue missions, and soil and water remediation from environmental pollutants. Moreover, the study of small forces in micro cavities allows to understand and build a new generation of sensors whose enhanced sensitivity enables the detection of transient effects and molecules.

Dr. Falko Schmidt has defended his doctoral thesis in 2021 from the physics department at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. He is currently an independent PostDoctoral Fellow at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland working on 3D optofluidics.
He has over 9 years of experience in building holographic optical setups for experiments on the optical manipulation of micro- and nanosystems. He is the author of 7 scientific peer-reviewed articles published in renowned journals (e.g. Nature Physics, Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, ACS Photonics). He is also the co-founder of Lucero AB, a spin-off from research at the University of Gothenburg developing automated manipulation solutions for single cells in drug screening purposes.