An acusto-optical deflector projecting the logo of the university of konstanz onto a screen using a green laser

Welcome to the research group
of Prof. Clemens Bechinger

Find an overview of the current research projects here. 

Illustration of a janus particle in a bath of a glassy colloidal suspension
An experimental, optical setup in laser laboratory, utilizing green and red lasers


A researcher aligning a green laser setup

Open Positions

Click here to find an overview of the current job announcements

Illustration of two-dimensional aggregates made of colloidal particles sliding over a substrate consisting of a thing film with periodic holes


Illustration of an ensemble of janus-particles. The vision cone of those micro swimmers is shown. It is about 200 degrees around the swimmer and will lead to a collective swirling motion, depected by a green angular arrow

Publications

Find an overview of all publications

Photo of a polarized beam splitter with a blue hologram inside depicting an array of blue circles


Current news

Clogging of soft channels by self-propelled microparticles

Self-propelled microparticles are known to form clusters by blocking each other in a phenomenon called motility-induced phase separation (MIPS). Understanding how this behavior leads to clogging in thin channels can provide valuable insights into the nature of MIPS and may help in the design of microfluidic devices to promote or suppress clogging.

Read more

 

 

Optimal Control

Optimizing the energy efficiency of driving processes provides valuable insights into their underlying physics and is of crucial importance for numerous applications, from biological processes to the design of machines and robots.

Curveball at the microscopic scale

The Magnus effect causes the curved trajectory of spinning footballs or tennis balls, and it can even be used for the propulsion of ships. A team of physicists led by Clemens Bechinger have now documented, for the first time, the existence of the Magnus effect at the microscopic scale.

Whether you are familiar with the Magnus effect or not, you have certainly often made use of it, e.g. when kicking a curveball or putting spin on a tennis ball. The Flettner rotor even employs this principle to…

Read more