ABSTRACT
Downsizing of existing microstructures to nanostructures (those structures in which at least one dimension lies between 1 and 100 nanometers1 (nm)) is found in widely varied research fields. It possesses the potential to become one of the most fruitful and farsighted scientific and technological innovations of recent decades. The journey toward nanoscale science began in 1905, when Albert Einstein published a paper estimating the diameter of a sugar molecule to be about 1 nm. In spite of several important developments and a vague understanding of small-scale science, this field remained dormant until critical technological progress was achieved. Progress includes developments such as significant improvements in high-magnification electron microscopy, the development of digital electronics, and greatly improved chemical and physical control and manipulation capabilities. Although development of the electron microscope, which enabled subnanometer imaging, emerged around 1931, interest in nanotechnology was stimulated only later on the occasion of Richard Feynman’s2 remarks in his 1959 landmark talk on aspects of miniaturization entitled, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” Feynman’s prediction of an age of nanoscience served as a lightning rod for innovative thinking and set the pace for the evolution of today’s nanotechnology. Among the early milestones, the design in 1981 by Binnig and Rohrer of the tunneling scanning microscope (STM), which can image an individual atom, provided further encouragement to researchers everywhere. This development led to accelerated studies in small-scale science, stimulated further by the discovery of C60 by Curl, Kroto, and Smalley3 and the discovery of the carbon nanotube by Iijima4 in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, respectively.
