ABSTRACT
Although research on nanoscale-sized objects has been ongoing for a century or more, over the last few decades, there has been a collective e ort in bringing together researchers to this area from di erent disciplines to form a new discipline “nanoscience” that focuses on the properties of nanostructures (Saito and Zettl 2008). e extension to nonstructures from studies of molecules and clusters is natural. ere are also other conceptual paths from studies of periodic systems, which allow the application of concepts and experimental techniques originally designed for macroscopic solids (Cohen 2005). As a result, scientists and engineers have found common ground in the eld of nanoscience. e physical, chemical, computational, and biological sciences have overlapping interests associated with the nanoscale and its associated energy scale. e same holds true for electrical, mechanical, and computer engineering elds.
