This nanotube has a nose for oxygen

A light-activated high-performance sensor can precisely detect oxygen in complex gas mixtures

13-Mar-2025 - ETH researchers have developed a low-cost sensor made of carbon nanotubes that can selectively, efficiently and reliably measure minute quantities of oxygen in gas mixtures under light. The detector could be widely used in industry, medicine and environmental monitoring. Oxygen is essential for ...

Electron vortices in graphene detected

“Thanks to our extremely sensitive sensor and high spatial resolution, we didn’t even need to cool down the graphene...”

14-May-2024 - Researchers at ETH Zurich have, for the first time, made visible how electrons form vortices in a material at room temperature. Their experiment used a quantum sensing microscope with an extremely high resolution. When an ordinary electrical conductor – such as a metal wire – is connected to a ...

Two-dimensional quantum freeze

New opportunities for the design of ultra-sensitive sensors

09-Mar-2023 - Researchers at ETH Zurich and TII Abu Dhabi, with the support of quantum optics theorists from Innsbruck, Austria, have succeeded in simultaneously cooling the motion of a tiny glass sphere in two dimensions to the quantum ground-state. This represents a crucial step towards a 3D ground-state ...

Measuring ethanol’s deadly twin

18-Sep-2019 - ETH researchers have developed an inexpensive, handheld measuring device that can distinguish between methanol and potable alcohol. It offers a simple, quick method of detecting adulterated or contaminated alcoholic beverages and is able to diagnose methanol poisoning in exhaled breath. Methanol ...

First all-metamaterial optical gas sensor

03-Sep-2019 - Researchers have developed the first fully-integrated, non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas sensor enabled by specially engineered synthetic materials known as metamaterials. The sensor has no moving parts, requires little energy to operate and is among the smallest NDIR sensors ever created. The ...

High-precision magnetic field sensing

Highly sensitive sensor may find widespread use in medicine and other areas

05-Dec-2016 - Researchers from the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, which is operated jointly by ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, have succeeded in measuring tiny changes in strong magnetic fields with unprecedented precision. In their experiments, the scientists magnetised a water droplet inside ...

New composite material as CO2 sensor

09-Jun-2015 - A new material changes its conductivity depending on the concentration of CO2 in the environment. The researchers who developed it have utilized the material to produce a miniature, simply constructed sensor. Material scientists at ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and ...

Almost as sensitive as a dog's nose

New sensor for SERS Raman spectroscopy

02-Sep-2013 - Scientists at ETH Zurich and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California have developed an innovative sensor for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Thanks to its unique surface properties at nanoscale, the method can be used to perform analyses that are more reliable, ...