Science Now Webinar: Is Nanotechnology the Future of Medicine?

Nanotechnology – the science of manipulating the very, very tiny – could revolutionize medicine. Nanomagnets could fry tumors, for example, and an army of nanosensors within the body could detect the onset of life-threatening infections and diseases. Some of these ideas are already in clinical trials. But how far are they from becoming reality? What are the potential side effects? And what will nanotechnology mean for personalized medicine? :: Read the full article »»»»

Australian Nanotechnology: UNSW Single Atom Transistor

An Australian team of physicists have created the world’s first – and smallest – functioning single-atom transistor, which could prove a critical building block toward the development of super-fast computers. In what can only be described as nanotechnology at it’s purest – the ability to control matter at the atomic scale, build devices with atomic precision, is the central definition of nanotechnology. Though several groups have attempted this amazing feat before, never has it been accomplished with such puristic accuracy. As if nonotechnology wasn’t already übercool: The transistor itself is composed of a single phosphorous-31 isotope, which has been precisely placed on a base of silicon using a Scanning Tunneling Microscope in an ultra-high vacuum chamber. What’s particularly amazing about their technique is that they were able to position the individual phosphorous atoms precisely.

The Australian teams tiny electronic device – described in a paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology - uses as its active component an individual phosphorus atom patterned between atomic-scale electrodes and electrostatic control gates. The Nanotechnology paper elegantly describes a brilliant process: Researchers fabricated a single-atom transistor in which a single phosphorus atom is positioned between highly doped source and drain leads with a lateral spatial accuracy of ±1 atomic lattice spacing. researchers demonstrate that they were able to register source, drain and gate contacts to the individual donor atom and observe well-controlled transitions for 0, 1 and 2 electron states, in agreement with atomistic modelling of the device. What was also amazing said Dr Fuechsle was that the electronic characteristics exactly matched theoretical predictions undertaken with Professor Gerhard Klimeck’s group - using NEMO-3D, a Nanoelectronic Modeling tool - at Purdue University in the US and Professor Hollenberg’s group at the University of Melbourne.  Read the full article »»»»

MoS2 Molybdenum Disulphide: The Future is No Longer Silicon Based?

Researchers have uncovered a material that they say has distinct advantages over traditional silicon and even graphene for use in electronics. Molybdenite, this mineral is abundant in nature and is commonly used as an element in steel alloys or, thanks to its similarity in appearance and feel to graphite, as an additive in lubricant. Incredibly the mineral has never before been studied for use in electronics, which appears to have been an oversight with new research showing that molybdenite is a very effective semiconductor that could enable smaller and more energy efficient transistors, computer chips and solar cells.

Andras Kis, director of Switzerland’s Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures, announced last week that the first working molybdenite chip has been successfully tested: “We have built an initial prototype, putting from two to six serial transistors in place, and shown that basic binary logic operations were possible, which proves that we can make a larger chip.” Read the full article »»»»