EIA-9871775 Requicha, Aristides A. Koel, Bruce E. University of Southern California Partnerships in Nanotechnology: Robotic Assembly of Functional Nanostructures Control over the structure of matter at the nanometer scale may revolutionize science and technology, depending on the extent to which nanostructures can be assembled for specific functions. The thrust of this project is the development of a process for producing functional nanostructures. The process is based on manipulation of colloidal nanoparticles with an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) under program control. This process can be used by itself or to complement others, for example to modify a regular array of particles laid down by self-assembly or to construct a template for self-assembly. The primary application motivating this project is fabrication of an information storage device, the nanoCD, in which digital information is encoded in patterns of nanoparticles. However, the resulting processes will be generic and will have a wide range of potential applications. The research will proceed along two directions. The first is the development of manipulation strategies and associated software, using either known robotics techniques or inventing new ones. Nanoassembly must be automated because the number of elementary operations required in most assemblies will be enormous. The second research direction focuses on materials and phenomena at the nanometer scale. Issues to be addressed include the substrates, tips, and nanoparticles to be used, and the physics and chemistry of particles manipulation. Initial efforts are aimed at understanding the mechanics of moving nanoparticles with an AFM tip and the influence of process parameters. Initially, silicon substrates and colloidal nano particles will be investigated, to build upon current knowledge. This project results from a proposal submitted in response to NSF98-20, Partnership in Nanotechnology: Synthesis, Processing, and Utilization of Functional Nanostructures (FNS).
