Development of advanced materials (including nanomaterials) for energy harvesting, conversion and storage, as well as for nanoelectronic devices require advanced characterization techniques and state-of-the-art instrumentation. Often, important material properties and functionalities are realized by developing and exploiting understanding of fundamental phenomena at surfaces and interfaces, which in turn requires characterization capabilities suitable for probing these regions.

Fusion of lipid bilayers, or membranes, is a ubiquitous process. It occurs in the cells of our body during cargo exchange by membrane vesicles and during viral infection, but also in industrial processes such as yeast production. While many proteins like SNAREs have been identified that play crucial roles in membrane fusion, the molecular mechanism of fusion remains unclear.