News

We are proud to share that AMOLF researchers have published a new paper in Physical Review Letters, entitled “Exact Computation of Transfer Entropy with Path Weight Sampling.” The study presents TE-PWS, a computational technique that – for the first time – enables the exact computation of transfer entropy, a central measure in information theory. Transfer entropy is used to quantify how information flows from one part of a system to another, and to detect causal relationships between variables.

Researchers at AMOLF have demonstrated vibrational strong coupling in water layers only a few nanometers thick at metal surfaces. The study, published in Advanced Optical Materials and led by group leader Erik Garnett, shows how metal nanostructures (mid-IR antennas) are used to change the bonding strength of water located directly at the surface of the metal. This breakthrough opens the door to controlling chemical reactions in new ways, with potential impact on sustainable industrial chemistry at a large scale, e.g. making hydrogen from water electrolysis.

How do materials behave when heated with light at the scale of billionths of a meter? Researchers at AMOLF and Kobe University have developed a method to watch this process with nanometer precision. Their work, recently published in ACS Photonics, reveals how silicon nanoparticles heat up under laser light and how heat escapes from the surfaces. This breakthrough opens new doors for improving electronics, solar cells, and catalysts by giving scientists a sensitive tool to measure and control heat flow at the nanoscale.

Researchers in the Photonic Materials group have published their latest findings using cathodoluminescence techniques to measure free electrons moving along a metal surface. The paper ‘Angle-resolved cathodoluminescence interferometry of plasmonic and dielectric scatterers’ is published in the journal Nano Letters on September 18th. The technique can be used for more precise measurements that will benefit computer chip production.

Inside living cells, ribosomes produce roughly five hundred brand-new protein chains every second, and each one must fold into the right 3D shape – or risk disease. New research shows that two helper molecules called ‘Trigger Factor’ and ‘DnaK’ use a surprisingly simple rulebook to fold all proteins in the cell, despite their strikingly different structures. A team from AMOLF and Heidelberg University reports these findings in two papers published in PNAS and Nature Communications.

The conference Metamaterials2025 brought together 400 researchers from around the world to share their results and vision. Metamaterials was held at Felix Meritis in Amsterdam from September 2 – 6.

Cells on the inner surface of the intestine are replaced every few days. But, how does this work? It was always assumed that cells leave the intestinal surface because excess cells are pushed out. In a recent publication in the journal Science, researchers of the Hubrecht Institute and AMOLF show that this is not correct. In reality, the situation is exactly the opposite: the cells do not push, but pull at each other. These pulling forces lead to the removal of the weakest cells. This insight gives a new perspective on how a malfunctioning intestine can lead to disease or infection.

Fotios Avgidis – Criticality and Diversity in a Bacterial Sensory Network – June 6th [caption id="" align="alignright" width="160"] Fotios Avgidis after defending his thesis[/caption] Fotios Avgidis successfully defended his thesis…

As of 1 September, Jeroen van Zon has been appointed professor at Leiden University. The title of his chair is Quantitative Developmental Biology. Jeroen will continue heading the research group with the same name at AMOLF.

AMOLF group leader Ewold Verhagen and his fellow researchers have taken a major step in creating new forms of materials that make sound waves behave in extraordinary ways. In their recent publication in Nature Communications, the researchers demonstrate how light can be used to make sound travel only in one direction through a nanomechanical network – a breakthrough inspired by one of the most celebrated effects in physics, the quantum Hall effect. This opens the door to many more surprising physical effects still waiting to be explored.

As co-applicant, AMOLF group leader Ewold Verhagen receives funding from the NWO program Future Optical Broadband Systems to break the existing technological and economic barriers in the application of optical sensing technologies in industrial systems. Andrea Fiore from TU Eindhoven leads the project called BroadSense. A total amount of 923.000 euros is available for the project, from NWO and industrial co-funders.

The Board of NWO-I has appointed Prof. Dr. Bruno Ehrler as the new director of AMOLF, the national institute for research on functional complex matter. Effective 1 January 2026, Ehrler will succeed Prof. Dr. Huib Bakker. With this appointment, AMOLF welcomes a strategic and empathetic leader with a strong scientific track record and a clear vision.