NANO TECHNOLOGY:

NANO TECHNOLOGY: "Nanorobotics research has proceeded along two lines. The first is devoted to the design and computational simulation of robots with nanoscale dimensions-see [Drexler 1992] for the design of robots that resemble their macroscopic counterparts. Drexler's nanorobot uses various mechanical components such as nanogears built primarily with carbon atoms in a diamondoid structure. A major issue is how to build these devices, and little experimental progress has been made towards their construction.

The second area of Nanorobotics research involves manipulation of nanoscale objects with macroscopic instruments. Experimental work has been focused on this area, especially through the use of SPMs as robots. The remainder of this article describes SPM principles, surveys SPM use in Nanomanipulation, looks at the SPM as a robot, and concludes with a discussion of some of the challenges that face Nanorobotics research.


Scanning Probe Microscopes

The Scanning Tunelling Microscope (STM) was invented by Binnig and Rohrer at the IBM Zürich laboratory in the early 1980s, and won them a Nobel prize four years later."