Nanotechnology, the manipulation and manufacture of materials and devices on the scale of atoms or small groups of atoms. The nanoscale is typically measured in nanometres, or billionths of a metre (nanos, the Greek word for dwarf, being the source of the prefix), and materials built at this scale often exhibit distinctive physical and chemical properties due to quantum mechanical effects. Although usable devices this small may be decades away (see microelectromechanical system), techniques for working at the nanoscale have become essential to electronic engineering, and nanoengineered materials have begun to appear in consumer products. For example, billions of microscopic nanowhiskers, each about 10 nanometres in length, have been molecularly hooked onto natural and synthetic fibres to impart stain resistance to clothing and other fabrics; zinc oxide nanocrystals have been used to create invisible sunscreens that block ultraviolet light; and silver nanocrystals have been embedded in bandages to kill bacteria and prevent infection.
Possibilities for the future are numerous. Nanotechnology may make it possible to manufacture lighter, stronger, and programmable materials that require less energy to produce than conventional materials, that produce less waste than with conventional manufacturing, and that promise greater fuel efficiency in land transportation, ships, aircraft, and space vehicles. Nanocoatings for both opaque and translucent surfaces may render them resistant to corrosion, scratches, and radiation. Nanoscale electronic, magnetic, and mechanical devices and systems with unprecedented levels of information processing may be fabricated, as may chemical, photochemical, and biological sensors for protection, health care, manufacturing, and the environment; new photoelectric materials that will enable the manufacture of cost-efficient solar-energy panels; and molecular-semiconductor hybrid devices that may become engines for the next revolution in the information age. The potential for improvements in health, safety, quality of life, and conservation of the environment are vast.
At the same time, significant challenges must be overcome for the benefits of nanotechnology to be realized. Scientists must learn how to manipulate and characterize individual atoms and small groups of atoms reliably. New and improved tools are needed to control the properties and structure of materials at the nanoscale; significant improvements in computer simulations of atomic and molecular structures are essential to the understanding of this realm. Next, new tools and approaches are needed for assembling atoms and molecules into nanoscale systems and for the further assembly of small systems into more-complex objects. Furthermore, nanotechnology products must provide not only improved performance but also lower cost. Finally, without integration of nanoscale objects with systems at the micro- and macroscale (that is, from millionths of a metre up to the millimetre scale), it will be very difficult to exploit many of the unique properties found at the nanoscale.
Nanotechnology is highly interdisciplinary, involving physics, chemistry, biology, materials science, and the full range of the engineering disciplines. The word nanotechnology is widely used as shorthand to refer to both the science and the technology of this emerging field. Narrowly defined, nanoscience concerns a basic understanding of physical, chemical, and biological properties on atomic and near-atomic scales. Nanotechnology, narrowly defined, employs controlled manipulation of these properties to create materials and functional systems with unique capabilities.
In contrast to recent engineering efforts, nature developed nanotechnologies over billions of years, employing enzymes and catalysts to organize with exquisite precision different kinds of atoms and molecules into complex microscopic structures that make life possible. These natural products are built with great efficiency and have impressive capabilities, such as the power to harvest solar energy, to convert minerals and water into living cells, to store and process massive amounts of data using large arrays of nerve cells, and to replicate perfectly billions of bits of information stored in molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
There are two principal reasons for qualitative differences in material behaviour at the nanoscale (traditionally defined as less than 100 nanometres). First, quantum mechanical effects come into play at very small dimensions and lead to new physics and chemistry. Second, a defining feature at the nanoscale is the very large surface-to-volume ratio of these structures. This means that no atom is very far from a surface or interface, and the behaviour of atoms at these higher-energy sites have a significant influence on the properties of the material. For example, the reactivity of a metal catalyst particle generally increases appreciably as its size is reducedmacroscopic gold is chemically inert, whereas at nanoscales gold becomes extremely reactive and catalytic and even melts at a lower temperature. Thus, at nanoscale dimensions material properties depend on and change with size, as well as composition and structure.
Using the processes of nanotechnology, basic industrial production may veer dramatically from the course followed by steel plants and chemical factories of the past. Raw materials will come from the atoms of abundant elementscarbon, hydrogen, and siliconand these will be manipulated into precise configurations to create nanostructured materials that exhibit exactly the right properties for each particular application. For example, carbon atoms can be bonded together in a number of different geometries to create variously a fibre, a tube, a molecular coating, or a wire, all with the superior strength-to-weight ratio of another carbon materialdiamond. Additionally, such material processing need not require smokestacks, power-hungry industrial machinery, or intensive human labour. Instead, it may be accomplished either by growing new structures through some combination of chemical catalysts and synthetic enzymes or by building them through new techniques based on patterning and self-assembly of nanoscale materials into useful predetermined designs. Nanotechnology ultimately may allow people to fabricate almost any type of material or product allowable under the laws of physics and chemistry. While such possibilities seem remote, even approaching natures virtuosity in energy-efficient fabrication would be revolutionary.
Even more revolutionary would be the fabrication of nanoscale machines and devices for incorporation into micro- and macroscale systems. Once again, nature has led the way with the fabrication of both linear and rotary molecular motors. These biological machines carry out such tasks as muscle contraction (in organisms ranging from clams to humans) and shuttling little packets of material around within cells while being powered by the recyclable, energy-efficient fuel adenosine triphosphate. Scientists are only beginning to develop the tools to fabricate functioning systems at such small scales, with most advances based on electronic or magnetic information processing and storage systems. The energy-efficient, reconfigurable, and self-repairing aspects of biological systems are just becoming understood.
The potential impact of nanotechnology processes, machines, and products is expected to be far-reaching, affecting nearly every conceivable information technology, energy source, agricultural product, medical device, pharmaceutical, and material used in manufacturing. Meanwhile, the dimensions of electronic circuits on semiconductors continue to shrink, with minimum feature sizes now reaching the nanorealm, under 100 nanometres. Likewise, magnetic memory materials, which form the basis of hard disk drives, have achieved dramatically greater memory density as a result of nanoscale structuring to exploit new magnetic effects at nanodimensions. These latter two areas represent another major trend, the evolution of critical elements of microtechnology into the realm of nanotechnology to enhance performance. They are immense markets driven by the rapid advance of information technology.
In a lecture in 1959 to the American Physical Society, Theres Plenty of Room at the Bottom, American Nobelist Richard P. Feynman presented his audience with a vision of what could be done with extreme miniaturization. He began his lecture by noting that the Lords Prayer had been written on the head of a pin and asked,
Why cannot we write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopdia Britannica on the head of a pin? Lets see what would be involved. The head of a pin is a sixteenth of an inch across. If you magnify it by 25,000 diameters, the area of the head of the pin is then equal to the area of all the pages of the Encyclopdia Britannica. Therefore, all it is necessary to do is to reduce in size all the writing in the Encyclopdia by 25,000 times. Is that possible? The resolving power of the eye is about 1/120 of an inchthat is roughly the diameter of one of the little dots on the fine half-tone reproductions in the Encyclopdia. This, when you demagnify it by 25,000 times, is still 80 angstroms in diameter32 atoms across, in an ordinary metal. In other words, one of those dots still would contain in its area 1,000 atoms. So, each dot can easily be adjusted in size as required by the photoengraving, and there is no question that there is enough room on the head of a pin to put all of the Encyclopdia Britannica.
Feynman was intrigued by biology and pointed out that
cells are very tiny, but they are very active; they manufacture various substances; they walk around; they wiggle; and they do all kinds of marvelous thingsall on a very small scale. Also, they store information. Consider the possibility that we too can make a thing very small which does what we wantthat we can manufacture an object that maneuvers at that level!
He also considered using big tools to make smaller tools that could make yet smaller tools, eventually obtaining nanoscale tools for directly manipulating atoms and molecules. In considering what all this might mean, Feynman declared,
I can hardly doubt that when we have some control of the arrangement of things on a small scale we will get an enormously greater range of possible properties that substances can have, and of different things that we can do.
Perhaps the biggest barrier to following these prophetic thoughts was simply the immediate lack of tools to manipulate and visualize matter at such a small scale. The availability of tools has always been an enabling aspect of the advance of all science and technology, and some of the key tools for nanotechnology are discussed in the next section, Pioneers.
Starting with a 1981 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and following with two popular books, Engines of Creation (1986) and Nanosystems (1992), American scientist K. Eric Drexler became one of the foremost advocates of nanotechnology. In fact, Drexler was the first person anywhere to receive a Ph.D. in molecular nanotechnology (from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology). In his written works he takes a molecular view of the world and envisions molecular machines doing much of the work of the future. For example, he refers to assemblers, which will manipulate individual atoms to manufacture structures, and replicators, which will be able to make multiple copies of themselves in order to save time dealing with the billions of atoms needed to make objects of useful size. In an article for Encyclopdia Britannicas 1990 Yearbook of Science and the Future, Drexler wrote:
Cells and tissues in the human body are built and maintained by molecular machinery, but sometimes that machinery proves inadequate: viruses multiply, cancer cells spread, or systems age and deteriorate. As one might expect, new molecular machines and computers of subcellular size could support the bodys own mechanisms. Devices containing nanocomputers interfaced to molecular sensors and effectors could serve as an augmented immune system, searching out and destroying viruses and cancer cells. Similar devices programmed as repair machines could enter living cells to edit out viral DNA sequences and repair molecular damage. Such machines would bring surgical control to the molecular level, opening broad new horizons in medicine.
Drexlers futurist visions have stimulated much thought, but the assembler approach has failed to account for the strong influence of atomic and molecular forces (i.e., the chemistry) at such dimensions. The controversy surrounding these popularizations, and the potential dangers of entities such as intelligent replicators (however remote), have stimulated debate over the ethical and societal implications of nanotechnology.
A number of key technological milestones have been achieved by working pioneers. Molecular beam epitaxy, invented by Alfred Cho and John Arthur at Bell Labs in 1968 and developed in the 1970s, enabled the controlled deposition of single atomic layers. This tool provided for nanostructuring in one dimension as atomic layers were grown one upon the next. It subsequently became important in the area of compound semiconductor device fabrication. For example, sandwiching one-nanometre-thick layers of nonmagnetic-sensor materials between magnetic layers in computer disk drives resulted in large increases in storage capacity, and a similar use of nanostructuring resulted in more energy-efficient semiconductor lasers for use in compact disc players.
In 1981 Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer developed the scanning tunneling microscope at IBMs laboratories in Switzerland. This tool provided a revolutionary advance by enabling scientists to image the position of individual atoms on surfaces. It earned Binnig and Rohrer a Nobel Prize in 1986 and spawned a wide variety of scanning probe tools for nanoscale observations.
The observation of new carbon structures marked another important milestone in the advance of nanotechnology, with Nobel Prizes for the discoverers. In 1985 Robert F. Curl, Jr., Harold W. Kroto, and Richard E. Smalley discovered the first fullerene, the third known form of pure carbon (after diamond and graphite). They named their discovery buckminsterfullerene (buckyball) for its resemblance to the geodesic domes promoted by the American architect R. Buckminster Fuller. Technically called C60 for the 60 carbon atoms that form their hollow spherical structure, buckyballs resemble a football one nanometre in diameter (see figure). In 1991 Sumio Iijima of NEC Corporation in Japan discovered carbon nanotubes, in which the carbon ringlike structures are extended from spheres into long tubes of varying diameter. Taken together, these new structures surprised and excited the imaginations of scientists about the possibilities of forming well-defined nanostructures with unexpected new properties.
The scanning tunneling microscope not only allowed for the imaging of atoms by scanning a sharp probe tip over a surface, but it also allowed atoms to be pushed around on the surface. With a slight bias voltage applied to the probe tip, certain atoms could be made to adhere to the tip used for imaging and then to be released from it. Thus, in 1990 Donald Eigler spelled out the letters of his companys logo, IBM, by moving 35 xenon atoms into place on a nickel surface. This demonstration caught the publics attention because it showed the precision of the emerging nanoscale tools.
At nanoscale dimensions the properties of materials no longer depend solely on composition and structure in the usual sense. Nanomaterials display new phenomena associated with quantized effects and with the preponderance of surfaces and interfaces.
Quantized effects arise in the nanometre regime because the overall dimensions of objects are comparable to the characteristic wavelength for fundamental excitations in materials. For example, electron wave functions (see also de Broglie wave) in semiconductors are typically on the order of 10 to 100 nanometres. Such excitations include the wavelength of electrons, photons, phonons, and magnons, to name a few. These excitations carry the quanta of energy through materials and thus determine the dynamics of their propagation and transformation from one form to another. When the size of structures is comparable to the quanta themselves, it influences how these excitations move through and interact in the material. Small structures may limit flow, create wave interference effects, and otherwise bring into play quantum mechanical selection rules not apparent at larger dimensions.
Quantum mechanical properties for confinement of electrons in one dimension have long been exploited in solid-state electronics. Semiconductor devices are grown with thin layers of differing composition so that electrons (or holes in the case of missing electron charges) can be confined in specific regions of the structure (known as quantum wells). Thin layers with larger energy bandgaps can serve as barriers that restrict the flow of charges to certain conditions under which they can tunnel through these barriersthe basis of resonant tunneling diodes. Superlattices are periodic structures of repeating wells that set up a new set of selection rules which affect the conditions for charges to flow through the structure. Superlattices have been exploited in cascade lasers to achieve far infrared wavelengths. Modern telecommunications is based on semiconductor lasers that exploit the unique properties of quantum wells to achieve specific wavelengths and high efficiency.
The propagation of photons is altered dramatically when the size and periodicity of the transient structure approach the wavelength of visible light (400 to 800 nanometres). When photons propagate through a periodically varying dielectric constantfor example, semiconductor posts surrounded by airquantum mechanical rules define and limit the propagation of the photons depending on their energy (wavelength). This new behaviour is analogous to the quantum mechanical rules that define the motion of electrons through crystals, giving bandgaps for semiconductors. In one dimension, compound semiconductor superlattices can be grown epitaxially with the alternating layers having different dielectric constants, thus providing highly reflective mirrors for specific wavelengths as determined by the repeat distance of layers in the superlattice. These structures are used to provide built-in mirrors for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, which are used in communications applications. In two and three dimensions, periodic structures known as photonic crystals offer additional control over photon propagation.
Photonic crystals are being explored in a variety of materials and periodicities, such as two-dimensional hexagonal arrays of posts fabricated in compound semiconductors or stacked loglike arrays of silicon bars in three dimensions. The dimensions of these structures depend on the wavelength of light being propagated and are typically in the range of a few hundred nanometres for wavelengths in the visible and near infrared. Photonic crystal properties based on nanostructured materials offer the possibility of confining, steering, and separating light by wavelength on unprecedented small scales and of creating new devices such as lasers that require very low currents to initiate lasing (called near-thresholdless lasers). These structures are being extensively investigated as the tools for nanostructuring materials are steadily advancing. Researchers are particularly interested in the infrared wavelengths, where dimensional control is not as stringent as at the shorter visible wavelengths and where optical communications and chemical sensing provide motivation for potential new applications.
Nanoscale materials also have size-dependent magnetic behaviour, mechanical properties, and chemical reactivity. At very small sizes (a few nanometres), magnetic nanoclusters have a single magnetic domain, and the strongly coupled magnetic spins on each atom combine to produce a particle with a single giant spin. For example, the giant spin of a ferromagnetic iron particle rotates freely at room temperature for diameters below about 16 nanometres, an effect termed superparamagnetism. Mechanical properties of nanostructured materials can reach exceptional strengths. As a specific example, the introduction of two-nanometre aluminum oxide precipitates into thin films of pure nickel results in yield strengths increasing from 0.15 to 5 gigapascals, which is more than twice that for a hard bearing steel. Another example of exceptional mechanical properties at the nanoscale is the carbon nanotube, which exhibits great strength and stiffness along its longitudinal axis.
The preponderance of surfaces is a major reason for the change in behaviour of materials at the nanoscale. Since up to half of all the atoms in nanoparticles are surface atoms, properties such as electrical transport are no longer determined by solid-state bulk phenomena. Likewise, the atoms in nanostructures have a higher average energy than atoms in larger structures, because of the large proportion of surface atoms. For example, catalytic materials have a greater chemical activity per atom of exposed surface as the catalyst is reduced in size at the nanoscale. Defects and impurities may be attracted to surfaces and interfaces, and interactions between particles at these small dimensions can depend on the structure and nature of chemical bonding at the surface. Molecular monolayers may be used to change or control surface properties and to mediate the interaction between nanoparticles.
Surfaces and their interactions with molecular structures are basic to all biology. The intersection of nanotechnology and biotechnology offers the possibility of achieving new functions and properties with nanostructured surfaces. In this surface- and interface-dominated regime, biology does an exquisite job of selectively controlling functions through a combination of structure and chemical forces. The transcription of information stored in genes and the selectivity of biochemical reactions based on chemical recognition of complex molecules are examples where interfaces play the key role in establishing nanoscale behaviour. Atomic forces and chemical bonds dominate at these dimensions, while macroscopic effectssuch as convection, turbulence, and momentum (inertial forces)are of little consequence.
As discussed in the section Properties at the nanoscale, material propertieselectrical, optical, magnetic, mechanical, and chemicaldepend on their exact dimensions. This opens the way for development of new and improved materials through manipulation of their nanostructure. Hierarchical assemblies of nanoscale-engineered materials into larger structures, or their incorporation into devices, provide the basis for tailoring radically new materials and machines.
Natures assemblies point the way to improving structural materials. The often-cited abalone seashell provides a beautiful example of how the combination of a hard, brittle inorganic material with nanoscale structuring and a soft, tough organic material can produce a strong, durable nanocompositebasically, these nanocomposites are made of calcium carbonate bricks held together by a glycoprotein glue. New engineered materials are emergingsuch as polymer-clay nanocompositesthat are not only strong and tough but also lightweight and easier to recycle than conventional reinforced plastics. Such improvements in structural materials are particularly important for the transportation industry, where reduced weight directly translates into improved fuel economy. Other improvements can increase safety or decrease the impact on the environment of fabrication and recycling. Further advances, such as truly smart materials that signal their impending failure or are even able to self-repair flaws, may be possible with composites of the future.
Sensors are central to almost all modern control systems. For example, multiple sensors are used in automobiles for such diverse tasks as engine management, emission control, security, safety, comfort, vehicle monitoring, and diagnostics. While such traditional applications for physical sensing generally rely on microscale sensing devices, the advent of nanoscale materials and structures has led to new electronic, photonic, and magnetic nanosensors, sometimes known as smart dust. Because of their small size, nanosensors exhibit unprecedented speed and sensitivity, extending in some cases down to the detection of single molecules. For example, nanowires made of carbon nanotubes, silicon, or other semiconductor materials exhibit exceptional sensitivity to chemical species or biological agents. Electrical current through nanowires can be altered by having molecules attached to their surface that locally perturb their electronic band structure. By means of nanowire surfaces coated with sensor molecules that selectively attach particular species, charge-induced changes in current can be used to detect the presence of those species. This same strategy is adopted for many classes of sensing systems. New types of sensors with ultrahigh sensitivity and specificity will have many applications; for example, sensors that can detect cancerous tumours when they consist of only a few cells would be a very significant advance.
Nanomaterials also make excellent filters for trapping heavy metals and other pollutants from industrial wastewater. One of the greatest potential impacts of nanotechnology on the lives of the majority of people on Earth will be in the area of economical water desalination and purification. Nanomaterials will very likely find important use in fuel cells, bioconversion for energy, bioprocessing of food products, waste remediation, and pollution-control systems.
A recent concern regarding nanoparticles is whether their small sizes and novel properties may pose significant health or environmental risks. In general, ultrafine particlessuch as the carbon in photocopier toners or in soot produced by combustion engines and factorieshave adverse respiratory and cardiovascular effects on people and animals. Studies are under way to determine if specific nanoscale particles pose higher risks that may require special regulatory restrictions. Of particular concern are potential carcinogenic risks from inhaled particles and the possibility for very small nanoparticles to cross the blood-brain barrier to unknown effect. Nanomaterials currently receiving attention from health officials include carbon nanotubes, buckyballs, and cadmium selenide quantum dots. Studies of the absorption through the skin of titanium oxide nanoparticles (used in sunscreens) are also planned. More far-ranging studies of the toxicity, transport, and overall fate of nanoparticles in ecosystems and the environment have not yet been undertaken. Some early animal studies, involving the introduction of very high levels of nanoparticles which resulted in the rapid death of many of the subjects, are quite controversial.
Nanotechnology promises to impact medical treatment in multiple ways. First, advances in nanoscale particle design and fabrication provide new options for drug delivery and drug therapies. More than half of the new drugs developed each year are not water-soluble, which makes their delivery difficult. In the form of nanosized particles, however, these drugs are more readily transported to their destination, and they can be delivered in the conventional form of pills.
More important, nanotechnology may enable drugs to be delivered to precisely the right location in the body and to release drug doses on a predetermined schedule for optimal treatment. The general approach is to attach the drug to a nanosized carrier that will release the medicine in the body over an extended period of time or when specifically triggered to do so. In addition, the surfaces of these nanoscale carriers may be treated to seek out and become localized at a disease sitefor example, attaching to cancerous tumours. One type of molecule of special interest for these applications is an organic dendrimer. A dendrimer is a special class of polymeric molecule that weaves in and out from a hollow central region. These spherical fuzz balls are about the size of a typical protein but cannot unfold like proteins. Interest in dendrimers derives from the ability to tailor their cavity sizes and chemical properties to hold different therapeutic agents. Researchers hope to design different dendrimers that can swell and release their drug on exposure to specifically recognized molecules that indicate a disease target. This same general approach to nanoparticle-directed drug delivery is being explored for other types of nanoparticles as well.
Another approach involves gold-coated nanoshells whose size can be adjusted to absorb light energy at different wavelengths. In particular, infrared light will pass through several centimetres of body tissue, allowing a delicate and precise heating of such capsules in order to release the therapeutic substance within. Furthermore, antibodies may be attached to the outer gold surface of the shells to cause them to bind specifically to certain tumour cells, thereby reducing the damage to surrounding healthy cells.
A second area of intense study in nanomedicine is that of developing new diagnostic tools. Motivation for this work ranges from fundamental biomedical research at the level of single genes or cells to point-of-care applications for health delivery services. With advances in molecular biology, much diagnostic work now focuses on detecting specific biological signatures. These analyses are referred to as bioassays. Examples include studies to determine which genes are active in response to a particular disease or drug therapy. A general approach involves attaching fluorescing dye molecules to the target biomolecules in order to reveal their concentration.
Another approach to bioassays uses semiconductor nanoparticles, such as cadmium selenide, which emit light of a specific wavelength depending on their size. Different-size particles can be tagged to different receptors so that a wider variety of distinct colour tags are available than can be distinguished for dye molecules. The degradation in fluorescence with repeated excitation for dyes is avoided. Furthermore, various-size particles can be encapsulated in latex beads and their resulting wavelengths read like a bar code. This approach, while still in the exploratory stage, would allow for an enormous number of distinct labels for bioassays.
Another nanotechnology variation on bioassays is to attach one half of the single-stranded complementary DNA segment for the genetic sequence to be detected to one set of gold particles and the other half to a second set of gold particles. When the material of interest is present in a solution, the two attachments cause the gold balls to agglomerate, providing a large change in optical properties that can be seen in the colour of the solution. If both halves of the sequence do not match, no agglomeration will occur and no change will be observed.
Approaches that do not involve optical detection techniques are also being explored with nanoparticles. For example, magnetic nanoparticles can be attached to antibodies that in turn recognize and attach to specific biomolecules. The magnetic particles then act as tags and handlebars through which magnetic fields can be used for mixing, extracting, or identifying the attached biomolecules within microlitre- or nanolitre-sized samples. For example, magnetic nanoparticles stay magnetized as a single domain for a significant period, which enables them to be aligned and detected in a magnetic field. In particular, attached antibodymagnetic-nanoparticle combinations rotate slowly and give a distinctive magnetic signal. In contrast, magnetically tagged antibodies that are not attached to the biological material being detected rotate more rapidly and so do not give the same distinctive signal.
Microfluidic systems, or labs-on-chips, have been developed for biochemical assays of minuscule samples. Typically cramming numerous electronic and mechanical components into a portable unit no larger than a credit card, they are especially useful for conducting rapid analysis in the field. While these microfluidic systems primarily operate at the microscale (that is, millionths of a metre), nanotechnology has contributed new concepts and will likely play an increasing role in the future. For example, separation of DNA is sensitive to entropic effects, such as the entropy required to unfold DNA of a given length. A new approach to separating DNA could take advantage of its passage through a nanoscale array of posts or channels such that DNA molecules of different lengths would uncoil at different rates.
Other researchers have focused on detecting signal changes as nanometre-wide DNA strands are threaded through a nanoscale pore. Early studies used pores punched in membranes by viruses; artificially fabricated nanopores are also being tested. By applying an electric potential across the membrane in a liquid cell to pull the DNA through, changes in ion current can be measured as different repeating base units of the molecule pass through the pores. Nanotechnology-enabled advances in the entire area of bioassays will clearly impact health care in many ways, from early detection, rapid clinical analysis, and home monitoring to new understanding of molecular biology and genetic-based treatments for fighting disease.
Another biomedical application of nanotechnology involves assistive devices for people who have lost or lack certain natural capabilities. For example, researchers hope to design retinal implants for vision-impaired individuals. The concept is to implant chips with photodetector arrays to transmit signals from the retina to the brain via the optic nerve. Meaningful spatial information, even if only at a rudimentary level, would be of great assistance to the blind. Such research illustrates the tremendous challenge of designing hybrid systems that work at the interface between inorganic devices and biological systems.
Closely related research involves implanting nanoscale neural probes in brain tissue to activate and control motor functions. This requires effective and stable wiring of many electrodes to neurons. It is exciting because of the possibility of recovery of control for motor-impaired individuals. Studies employing neural stimulation of damaged spinal cords by electrical signals have demonstrated the return of some locomotion. Researchers are also seeking ways to assist in the regeneration and healing of bone, skin, and cartilagefor example, developing synthetic biocompatible or biodegradable structures with nanosized voids that would serve as templates for regenerating specific tissue while delivering chemicals to assist in the repair process. At a more sophisticated level, researchers hope to someday build nanoscale or microscale machines that can repair, assist, or replace more-complex organs.
Semiconductor experts agree that the ongoing shrinkage in conventional electronic devices will inevitably reach fundamental limits due to quantum effects such as tunneling, in which electrons jump out of their prescribed circuit path and create atomic-scale interference between devices. At that point, radical new approaches to data storage and information processing will be required for further advances. For example, radically new systems have been imagined that are based on quantum computing or biomolecular computing.
The use of molecules for electronic devices was suggested by Mark Ratner of Northwestern University and Avi Aviram of IBM as early as the 1970s, but proper nanotechnology tools did not become available until the turn of the 21st century. Wiring up molecules some half a nanometre wide and a few nanometres long remains a major challenge, and an understanding of electrical transport through single molecules is only beginning to emerge. A number of groups have been able to demonstrate molecular switches, for example, that could conceivably be used in computer memory or logic arrays. Current areas of research include mechanisms to guide the selection of molecules, architectures for assembling molecules into nanoscale gates, and three-terminal molecules for transistor-like behaviour. More-radical approaches include DNA computing, where single-stranded DNA on a silicon chip would encode all possible variable values and complementary strand interactions would be used for a parallel processing approach to finding solutions. An area related to molecular electronics is that of organic thin-film transistors and light emitters, which promise new applications such as video displays that can be rolled out like wallpaper and flexible electronic newspapers.
Carbon nanotubes have remarkable electronic, mechanical, and chemical properties. Depending on their specific diameter and the bonding arrangement of their carbon atoms, nanotubes exhibit either metallic or semiconducting behaviour. Electrical conduction within a perfect nanotube is ballistic (negligible scattering), with low thermal dissipation. As a result, a wire made from a nanotube, or a nanowire, can carry much more current than an ordinary metal wire of comparable size. At 1.4 nanometres in diameter, nanotubes are about a hundred times smaller than the gate width of silicon semiconductor devices. In addition to nanowires for conduction, transistors, diodes, and simple logic circuits have been demonstrated by combining metallic and semiconductor carbon nanotubes. Similarly, silicon nanowires have been used to build experimental devices, such as field-effect transistors, bipolar transistors, inverters, light-emitting diodes, sensors, and even simple memory. A major challenge for nanowire circuits, as for molecular electronics, is connecting and integrating these devices into a workable high-density architecture. Ideally, the structure would be grown and assembled in place. Crossbar architectures that combine the function of wires and devices are of particular interest.
At nanoscale dimensions the energy required to add one additional electron to a small island (isolated physical region)for example, through a tunneling barrierbecomes significant. This change in energy provides the basis for devising single-electron transistors. At low temperatures, where thermal fluctuations are small, various single-electron-device nanostructures are readily achievable, and extensive research has been carried out for structures with confined electron flow. However, room-temperature applications will require that sizes be reduced significantly, to the one-nanometre range, to achieve stable operation. For large-scale application with millions of devices, as found in current integrated circuits, the need for structures with very uniform size to maintain uniform device characteristics presents a significant challenge. Also, in this and many new nanodevices being explored, the lack of gain is a serious drawback limiting implementation in large-scale electronic circuits.
Spintronics refers to electronic devices that perform logic operations based on not just the electrical charge of carriers but also their spin. For example, information could be transported or stored through the spin-up or spin-down states of electrons. This is a new area of research, and issues include the injection of spin-polarized carriers, their transport, and their detection. The role of nanoscale structure and electronic properties of the ferromagnetic-semiconductor interface on the spin injection process, the growth of new ferromagnetic semiconductors with nanoscale control, and the possible use of nanostructured features to manipulate spin are all of interest.
Current approaches to information storage and retrieval include high-density, high-speed, solid-state electronic memories, as well as slower (but generally more spacious) magnetic and optical discs (see computer memory). As the minimum feature size for electronic processing approaches 100 nanometres, nanotechnology provides ways to decrease further the bit size of the stored information, thus increasing density and reducing interconnection distances for obtaining still-higher speeds. For example, the basis of the current generation of magnetic disks is the giant magnetoresistance effect. A magnetic read/write head stores bits of information by setting the direction of the magnetic field in nanometre-thick metallic layers that alternate between ferromagnetic and nonferromagnetic. Differences in spin-dependent scattering of electrons at the interface layers lead to resistance differences that can be read by the magnetic head. Mechanical properties, particularly tribology (friction and wear of moving surfaces), also play an important role in magnetic hard disk drives, since magnetic heads float only about 10 nanometres above spinning magnetic disks.
Another approach to information storage that is dependent on designing nanometre-thick magnetic layers is under commercial development. Known as magnetic random access memory (MRAM), a line of electrically switchable magnetic material is separated from a permanently magnetized layer by a nanoscale nonmagnetic interlayer. A resistance change that depends on the relative alignment of the fields is read electrically from a large array of wires through cross lines. MRAM will require a relatively small evolution from conventional semiconductor manufacturing, and it has the added benefit of producing nonvolatile memory (no power or batteries are needed to maintain stored memory states).
Still at an exploratory stage, studies of electrical conduction through molecules have generated interest in their possible use as memory. While still very speculative, molecular and nanowire approaches to memory are intriguing because of the small volume in which the bits of memory are stored and the effectiveness with which biological systems store large amounts of information.
Nanoscale structuring of optical devices, such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), quantum dot lasers, and photonic crystal materials, is leading to additional advances in communications technology.
VCSELs have nanoscale layers of compound semiconductors epitaxially grown into their structurealternating dielectric layers as mirrors and quantum wells. Quantum wells allow the charge carriers to be confined in well-defined regions and provide the energy conversion into light at desired wavelengths. They are placed in the lasers cavity to confine carriers at the nodes of a standing wave and to tailor the band structure for more efficient radiative recombination. One-dimensional nanotechnology techniques involving precise growth of very thin epitaxial semiconductor layers were developed during the 1990s. Such nanostructuring has enhanced the efficiency of VCSELs and reduced the current required for lasing to start (called the threshold current). Because of improving performance and their compatibility with planar manufacturing technology, VCSELs are fast becoming a preferred laser source in a variety of communications applications.
More recently, the introduction of quantum dots (regions so small that they can be given a single electric charge) into semiconductor lasers has been investigated and found to give additional benefitsboth further reductions in threshold current and narrower line widths. Quantum dots further confine the optical emission modes within a very narrow spectrum and give the lowest threshold current densities for lasing achieved to date in VCSELs. The quantum dots are introduced into the laser during the growth of strained layers, by a process called Stransky-Krastanov growth. They arise because of the lattice mismatch stress and surface tension of the growing film. Improvements in ways to control precisely the resulting quantum dots to a more uniform single size are still being sought.
Photonic crystals provide a new means to control the steering and manipulation of photons based on periodic dielectric lattices with repeat dimensions on the order of the wavelength of light. These materials can have very exotic properties, such as not allowing light within certain wavelengths to be propagated in a material based on the particular periodic structure. Photonic lattices can act as perfect wavelength-selective mirrors to reflect back incident light from all orientations. They provide the basis for optical switching, steering, and wavelength separation on unprecedented small scales. The periodic structures required for these artificial crystals can be configured as both two- and three-dimensional lattices. Optical sources, switches, and routers are being considered, with two-dimensional planar geometries receiving the most attention, because of their greater ease of fabrication.
Another potentially important communications application for nanotechnology is microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), devices sized at the micrometre level (millionths of a metre). MEMS are currently poised to have a major impact on communications via optical switching. In the future, electromechanical devices may shrink to nanodimensions to take advantage of the higher frequencies of mechanical vibration at smaller masses. The natural (resonant) frequency of vibration for small mechanical beams increases as their size decreases, so that little power is needed to drive them as oscillators. Their efficiency is rated by a quality factor, known as Q, which is a ratio of the energy stored per cycle versus the energy dissipated per cycle. The higher the Q, the more precise the absolute frequency of an oscillator. The Q is very high for micro- and nanoscale mechanical oscillators, and these devices can reach very high frequencies (up to microwave frequencies), making them potential low-power replacements for electronic-based oscillators and filters.
Mechanical oscillators have been made from silicon at dimensions of 10 100 nanometres, where more than 10 percent of the atoms are less than one atomic distance from the surface. While highly homogeneous materials can be made at these dimensionsfor example, single-crystal silicon barssurfaces play an increasing role at nanoscales, and energy losses increase, presumably because of surface defects and molecular species absorbed on surfaces.
It is possible to envision even higher frequencies, in what might be viewed as the ultimate in nanomechanical systems, by moving from nanomachined structures to molecular systems. As an example, multiwalled carbon nanotubes are being explored for their mechanical properties. When the ends of the outer nanotube are removed, the inner tube may be pulled partway out from the outer tube where van der Waals forces between the two tubes will supply a restoring force. The inner tube can thus oscillate, sliding back and forth inside the outer tube. The resonant frequency of oscillation for such structures is predicted to be above one gigahertz (one billion cycles per second). It is unknown whether connecting such systems to the macro world and protecting them from surface effects will ever be practical.
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