Thursday, August 19, 2010

Near-frictionless solid element combined utilizing nanotechnology

The finish outcome is a diamond-like CO element mass-produced at the nanoscale that doesn"t wear. The new nano-sized tip, researchers say, wears afar at the rate of one atom per micrometer of shifting on a substrate of silicon dioxide, majority reduce than that for a silicon oxide tip that represents the stream state-of-the-art. Consisting of carbon, hydrogen, silicon and oxygen molded in to the figure of a nano-sized tip and integrated on the finish of a silicon microcantilever for make use of in atomic force microscopy, the element has technological implications for atomic imaging, probe-based interpretation storage and as rising applications such as nanolithography, nanometrology and nanomanufacturing.

The significance of the find lies not only in the distance and insurgency to wear but additionally in the tough substrate opposite that it was shown to perform well when in shifting contact: silicon dioxide. Because silicon -- used in roughly all integrated circuit inclination -- oxidizes in ambience combining a thin covering of the oxide, this complement is the majority applicable for nanolithography, nanometrology and nanomanufacturing applications.

Probe-based technologies are approaching to fool around a widespread purpose in most such technologies; however, bad wear opening of most materials when slid opposite silicon oxide, together with silicon oxide itself, has exceedingly singular utility to the laboratory.

Researchers built the element from the belligerent up, rather than cloaking a nanoscale tip with wear-resistant materials. The partnership used a frame technique to fashion monolithic tips on customary silicon microcantilevers. A bulk estimate technique that has the intensity to scale up for blurb production is available.

Robert Carpick, highbrow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at Penn, and his investigate organisation had formerly shown that carbon-based thin films, together with diamond-like carbon, had low attrition and wear at the nanoscale; however, it has been formidable to fashion nanoscale structures done out of diamond-like CO until now.

Understanding attrition and wear at the nanoscale is critical for most applications that engage nanoscale components shifting on a surface.

It is not transparent that materials that are wear-resistant at the macroscale vaunt the same skill at the nanoscale, lead writer Harish Bhaskaran, who was a postdoctoral investigate at IBM during the study, said.

Defects, cracks and alternative phenomena that change element strength and wear at perceivable beam are less critical at the nanoscale, that is because nanowires can, for example, show higher strengths than bulk samples.

The study, published in the stream book of the biography Nature Nanotechnology, was conducted collaboratively by Carpick and postdoctoral researcher Papot Jaroenapibal of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics in PennSchool of Engineering and Applied Science; Bhaskaran, Bernd Gotsmann, Abu Sebastian, Ute Drechsler, Mark A. Lantz and Michel Despont of IBM Research-Zürich; and Yun Chen and Kumar Sridharan of the University of Wisconsin. Jaroenapibal now functions at Khon Kaen University in Thailand, and Bhaskaran now functions at Yale University.

Research was saved by a European Commission accede to and the Nano/Bio Interface Center of the University of Pennsylvania by the National Science Foundation.

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