Even the smallest robots built so far are too big to be able to imprint
nanoscale patterns onto microchips.
It doesn't rely on
nanoscale patterns, but instead is a simple sandwich of alternating nanometer - thick layers of silver and titanium dioxide, the construction of which is routine.
The holograms are created by
nanoscale patterns of metal that generate electromagnetic waves that travel at the metal - silicon interface; a field called plasmonics.
Epps is also leading an effort to do
nanoscale patterning with block polymers as a low - cost alternative to lithographic approaches currently used to make electronic devices.
Not exact matches
Now two researchers have applied the same technique to the
nanoscale, in the process creating the first nanoparticles with precisely
patterned surfaces.
Just as a home ink - jet printer draws letters using ink, Nanoident's printer drizzles liquid polymer or a solution of
nanoscale particles in a chosen
pattern.
By setting off ribbon formation in careful
patterns, the sheets could be turned into sensors and even transistors, allowing for
nanoscale electronics.
The lab developed state - of - the - art fabrication techniques for soft materials engineering artificial chemical networks at the
nanoscale that, altogether, would be capable of producing a wide variety of
patterns.
Easy to control, the new gold - catalyzed process for creating
patterns of channels with
nanoscale dimensions could help to spawn entirely new technologies fashioned from ensembles of ultra-small structures.
Her focus is on
nanoscale compositions, transport,
pattern formation, reaction mechanisms, and nanomechanical properties.
«The
nanoscale humans that populate da Silva's works can be looked on as resembling both brain cells and individual neurons, according to the artist, or the complex
patterns of pandemic diseases and computer viruses...» writes Brandon Taylor (After Constructivism, Yale University Press, 2014).