Exploratory SERGIS/SESANS study of Si nanowires

Nanowires are increasingly being used in life science as nanometer probes and interfacing with cells. In our work we focus on the interaction between nanowires and a phospholipid bilayer and anchored membrane proteins. Using spin-echo resolved grazing incident scattering (SERGIS) and spin-echo SANS (SESANS) it is possible to gain structural information about silica colloidal suspensions in optical grating. In this proposal we aim to use these techniques on silicon nanowiers to test whether we can use nanowires in replacement of the optical grating, and in the longer run, replace the silica colloidal suspension with phospholipid bilayer and membrane proteins.