1/25/2010

Nanophysics 1

Jun YUAN
jy518@york.ac.uk
2010-01-19

Outline

• Introduction to nano
• Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
– Feynman’s speech (1959) and current achievements
– Definition of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
• Overview of the course

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Introduction

• What is nano ?
– A Greek word for Dwarf
– Scientific notation for 10-9m, a length unit
• Why nanoscale ?
– Transition from classical physics and quantum mechanics
– ‘bottom’ in between human scale and atomic and subatomic
scale, plenty of space for novel physics and new technical
innovation
• What we have in nanoworld
– Molecules (nm)
– DNA (10 nm)
– Macromolecules (10-100 nm)

Richard P. Feynman (1959)

Plenty of room at the bottom
• I would like to describe a field, in which
little has been done, but in which an
enormous amount can be done in
principle. This field is not quite the
same as the others in that it will not tell
us much of fundamental physics (in the
sense of, ``What are the strange
particles?'') but it is more like solid-state
physics in the sense that it might tell us
much of great interest about the
strange phenomena that occur in
complex situations. Furthermore, a
point that is most important is that it
would have an enormous number of
technical applications.

• What I want to talk about is the problem

of manipulating and controlling things
on a small scale.
•Photo and Quote from http://www.its.caltech.edu/~feynman/plenty.html (2001)

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Feynman’s Challenges in
Miniaturization (Nanotechnology)
1959’s 1959’s dream Milestones
technology
Electric motor Linear dimension 1/64 McLellan’s motor
size of finger nail inch (1960)
First nanoscale motor
(Zettl, 2003)
Write the Lord's Write the entire 24 First page of Charles
Prayer on a pin head volumes of the Dickens's Tale of Two
Encyclopedia Cities, at the required
Brittanica on a pin scale reduction (Tom
head Newman , 1985)
(25K time reduction)

Zettl’s electrostatic
nanomotor (2003)

• consists of a gold plate of 100nm

dimension attached to a
suspended multiwall carbon
nanotube. (Nature, 424, 408, 2003)

From http://www.physics.berkeley.edu/research/zettl/projects/NEMS.html

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Surpassing Feynman’s challenges

From Hay 1999 Contemporary Physics 40, 257

From Hay 1999 Contemporary Physics 40, 257

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More vision from Feynman

• Miniaturizing the computer

– Moore’s law in electronics

• Atomic scale antenna for light emission

– Plasmon Optics

• Maneuvering things atom by atom

– Chemical synthesis by hand

Moore’s law in microelectronics

• Moore’s Law
– “The number of transistors
that can be fabricated on a
very large-scale integrated
(VLSI) chip doubles every two
years”, as the Intel founder
Gordon Moore observed in
1975 and predicted that the
trend will continue [1].
– This prediction has been
correct for the last 40 years.
• Can this trend continue ?
– Is there a physical limit ?
– (More on this topic in L11-L13,
Nanoelectronics) After Wgsimon (2008)

[1] ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Video-Transcripts/Excepts_A_Conversation_with_Gordon_Moore.pdf

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Nano antenna for light

• More on this topic in L14-L16 (Nanoplasmonics)

Building nanostructure atom-by-atom

• Quantum corral

M.F. Crommie, C.P. Lutz, D.M. Eigler, Science 262 (1993) 218

• Chemistry with single atom precision

Satoshi Katano, et al. Science 316 (2007) 1883

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Nanorobots, the science fiction

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/nanorobot.htm (Jan 2010)

Nanorobots – in practice (2010)

Wang 2009 AcsNano, 3(2009), 4-9

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Nanoscience and nanotechnology

• Nanoscience
– The study of phenomena and manipulation of materials at
atomic, molecular and macromolecular scales where
properties differ significantly from those at a larger scale

• Nanotechnologies
– The design, characterization, production and application of
structures, devices and systems by controlling shape and size
at nanometre scale

– Operationally: nanoscale <> 1-100nm

– This course focus on nanoscience, in particular,

nanophysics

Some details
• Course plan
– Lectures (whole class delivery)
– Problem classes
– A tour of Nanocenter in week 8

• Problem sheets
– Problem sheets will be issued in my teaching webpage:
http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~jy518/Nanophysics%20Lecture.htm

– Problems or related topics will be discussed during the problem

class (Week 3,4,6,8) or model solutions will be provided after
allowing time for you to try yourself.

• Open door policy

– Office: Research wing CO12, ext. 2220
– jy518@york.ac.uk

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Overview of the course

• Pt1: Introduction to nanoscience and

nanotechnology (Lt1-Lt2)

• Pt2: Physics of nanostructure (L3-L5)

• Pt3: Electrons in confinement (L6-L10)

• Pt4: Nanoelectronics (L11-L12)

• Pt5: Nanoplasmonics (L14-L16)

• Review (L17-L18)

Textbooks
• Charles Kittel
– ‘Introduction to solid state physics’, Wiley (Edition 8 or later)

General Reading Materials

• Feynman’s lecture:
“There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~feynman/plenty.html

• Royal Society Report:

“Nanoscience and nanotechnologies: opportunities and
uncertainties”
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/landing.asp?id=1210

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Assessment
– Written exam at the summer term

– Weekly problems

Summary
This lecture:
• Introduction to nanoscale
• Feynman’s call (1959):
• a new unexplored field full of new possibilities in
technological applications
• Current status:
• Miniturarization (nanomoter, Moore’s law)
• Atomic scale manipulation (quantum coral, nanochemistry)
• Nanorobots ?
• Nanophysics
• Study of the physics behind the phenomena at nanoscale
and nanomaterials.
• Overview of lectures

Next lecture:
• Nanofabrication and Nanoanalysis

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