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March 6th, 2008

Nanoswitches toggled by light

Abstract:
Microscopic fissures in a tiny crystal open and close-on command. Researchers led by Ahmed H. Zewail successfully used ultra-fast electron microscopy (UEM) to observe nanoscopic structures at their "exercises", as they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie. Such switchable nanochannels could be useful for future nanoelectronics and nanoscopic "machines".

Zewail and his team at the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, USA) are renowned for their work in ultra-fast science and technology. Zewail received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999 for the development of ultrafast laser techniques that are capable of revealing the motions of individual atoms within a molecule during a reaction. The most recent development to spring from Zewail's Laboratory is ultra-fast electron microscopy. This technique is a combination of a femtosecond optical system (a femtosecond equals 10-15 seconds) with a high-resolution electron microscope; the result is a new tool with extremely high resolution in time as well as in space.

Source:
scientistlive.com

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