New method to assemble nanoscale elements could transform data storage industry

[navarth]

From UCBerkley News:
By Sarah Yang, Media Relations | 19 February 2009

BERKELEY — An innovative and easily implemented technique in which nanoscale elements precisely assemble themselves over large surfaces could soon open doors to dramatic improvements in the data storage capacity of electronic media, according to scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst).

The sawtooth ridges formed by cutting and heating a sapphire crystal, shown at top, serves to guide the self-assembly of nanoscale elements into an ordered pattern over arbitrarily large surfaces. Researchers say the new, easy-to-implement technique may transform the data storage industry. (Dong Hyun Lee/UMass Amherst)
"I expect that the new method we developed will transform the microelectronic and storage industries, and open up vistas for entirely new applications," said co-lead investigator Thomas Russell, director of the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at UMass Amherst, visiting Miller Professor at UC Berkeley's Department of Chemistry, and one of the world's leading experts on the behavior of polymers. "This work could possibly be translated into the production of more energy-efficient photovoltaic cells, for instance."

more...

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/02/19_densechips.shtml


I especially like the idea of more efficient photovoltaic cells. This could be HUGE.

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. All I can say is...

:wow:

[Ilsa]

2. Cool shit comes from California. Excellent. nt