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Nanotechnology and Mesoscale Physics at RSPhysSE

Nanotechnology (the science of the very small) and mesoscale (systems of the order of milimeters in size) research at RSPhysSE includes:

Quantum wells wires and dots. Quantum wells are formed by building up atomically thin layers on the surface of semiconductor wafers using MOCVD. The extremely small scale of these structures means that their properties are influenced by quantum effects and this can be used to technological advantage by for example engineering the confinement of carriers within semiconductor laser structures. Wires are atomically thin in two dimensions and dots, in three. Quantum dots can be grown by MOCVD by careful choice of growth conditions and post growth annealing. mismatches in the lattice between grown layers being used to "condense" drops on the wafer surface.

Nanocrystals in semiconductor materials are used to enable manipulation of properties, for example light emission at wavelengths incompatible with the bulk material band structure.

Nanotubes as their name suggests are microscopically small pipes of material such as carbon - like an elongated form of a "buckie ball". These have exciting properties such as unimaginably high tensile strengths and the School has an active research program on the efficient production of nanotubes by mechano chemistry.

Mesoporous materials. Many biologically and technologically important materials ranging from oil bearing rocks to printing paper have a highly intricate structure involving interconnected labyrinths of pores. The School has several research programs studying the flow properties of these disordered porous media. Improved understanding of the physics of such processes has applications ranging from the petrochemical industries to the design of bubble jet printer inks and papers. The School is a major partner in the CRC for Functional Communication Surfaces. A strong theoretical team and novel experimental facilities such as ultra high resolution computed tomography come together to make the School a leader in this area.

The study of the enigmatic processes of long range ordering and self assembly, which for example, enables animals like the sea urchin to construct a skeleton out of polycrystaline elements which collectively exhibit some single crystal properties. Biomineralisation has also many potential commercial applications such as the production of low temperature super ceramics as well as wider scientific implications such as the search for Martian life.

Complex fluids such as liquid crystals, the properties of polymers and the folding of DNA molecules.

There are some cool images of nanotechnology and mesoscale physics in our Image Library
and there is a presentation on nanotechnology available here (4.7Mbyte pdf)