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Scientists Tame 'Hip Hop' Atoms Precision Placement May Help in Building Nanoscale Devices
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Sept. 9, 2004
Laura Ost (301) 975-4034
Joseph Stroscio; Robert Celotta / NIST
(a picture) A 40-nanometer-wide NIST logo made with cobalt atoms on a copper surface. The ripples in the background are made by electrons, which create a fluid-like layer at the copper surface. Each atom on the surface acts like a pebble dropped in a pond.
Click here to hear "sounds" of hip hop atoms (You will need Real Player on your computer in order to view. Download Real Player free of charge at the Real.Com FreePlayer website.)
In an effort to put more science into the largely trial and error building of nanostructures, physicists at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated new methods for placing what are typically unruly individual atoms at precise locations on a crystal surface.
Reported in the Sept. 9, 2004, online version of the journal Science, the advance enables scientists to observe and control, for the first time, the movement of a single atom back and forth between neighboring locations on a crystal and should make it easier to efficiently build nanoscale devices "from the bottom up," atom by atom.
The NIST team was surprised to find that the atoms emitted a characteristic electronic "noise" as they moved between two different types of bonding sites on the crystal surface. By converting this electronic signal into an audio signal, the researchers were able to "hear" the switching take place. The sound resembles a hip hop musician’s rhythmic "scratching" and can be used by researchers to know in real time that atoms have moved into desired positions.
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http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/hiphopatoms.htm
Scientists Tame 'Hip Hop' Atoms Precision Placement May Help in Building Nanoscale Devices
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Sept. 9, 2004
Laura Ost (301) 975-4034
Joseph Stroscio; Robert Celotta / NIST
(a picture) A 40-nanometer-wide NIST logo made with cobalt atoms on a copper surface. The ripples in the background are made by electrons, which create a fluid-like layer at the copper surface. Each atom on the surface acts like a pebble dropped in a pond.
Click here to hear "sounds" of hip hop atoms (You will need Real Player on your computer in order to view. Download Real Player free of charge at the Real.Com FreePlayer website.)
In an effort to put more science into the largely trial and error building of nanostructures, physicists at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated new methods for placing what are typically unruly individual atoms at precise locations on a crystal surface.
Reported in the Sept. 9, 2004, online version of the journal Science, the advance enables scientists to observe and control, for the first time, the movement of a single atom back and forth between neighboring locations on a crystal and should make it easier to efficiently build nanoscale devices "from the bottom up," atom by atom.
The NIST team was surprised to find that the atoms emitted a characteristic electronic "noise" as they moved between two different types of bonding sites on the crystal surface. By converting this electronic signal into an audio signal, the researchers were able to "hear" the switching take place. The sound resembles a hip hop musician’s rhythmic "scratching" and can be used by researchers to know in real time that atoms have moved into desired positions.