Thesis-PDF - IAP/TU Wien
Thesis-PDF - IAP/TU Wien
Thesis-PDF - IAP/TU Wien
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Chapter 2<br />
Nanotechnology<br />
2.1 Introduction to Nanotechnology<br />
Nanotechnology can be defined as the research and technology development at the<br />
atomic, molecular and macromolecular levels, in the length scale of approximately<br />
1 − 100 nm (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter, the diameter of a human hair<br />
is about 100,000 nanometers) (according to [12]).<br />
When objects sufficiently decrease in size otherwise negligible phenomena and<br />
properties (physical, chemical, biological, mechanical, electrical...) become important.<br />
Just as computers have gone from bulky, room-filling monstrosities to<br />
handheld computing devices, our ability to understand and manipulate matter at<br />
smaller and smaller levels increases. The scientific and technical revolution based<br />
upon the ability to systematically organize and manipulate matter at the nanoscale<br />
has just begun and its consequences reach too far than can be predicted beyond<br />
the near future.<br />
On December 29, in 1959, the physicist Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988) presented<br />
a talk to the American Physical Society entitled "There’s Plenty of Room<br />
at the Bottom: An Invitation to enter a new Field of Physics". He reasoned that<br />
"..there exists no reason why we shouldn’t be able to write the entire Encyclopedia<br />
Britannica on the head of a pin" and by that introduced the concept of nanotechnology.<br />
Simply put, he reasoned that if information were to be encoded in binary<br />
form - strings of zeros and ones, as in computers - and if each bit of information<br />
were to be composed in heaps of 100 atoms, then all the books in the world could<br />
be written in a cube measuring just 1/200 th of an inch wide ( ̂=0.127 mm).<br />
Another staggering claim of this talk was that one day it would be possible to<br />
simply synthesize every molecule we need by building tiny machines 1 that perform<br />
1 Some researchers conclude that Feynman was not interested in building miniaturized versions<br />
of existing macroscopic machines, but rather wished to construct microbiological machines and<br />
tools that would enable scientists to mimic microbiological materials. ([13])<br />
14