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Science Technology

Nanotechnology Harnesses the Power of Light 101

Posted by michael from the synthetic-photosynthesis dept.
madirish2600 writes "There's a Washington Post story running about some German scientists who have used light to create a nanotechnology spring. 'Scientists have for the first time used the power of light to create mechanical energy for a microdevice, making a single molecule of plastic drive a tiny machine.'"
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Nanotechnology Harnesses the Power of Light More

Nanotechnology Harnesses the Power of Light

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  • Now all they need is a microscopic diver to go off this diving board.
    • I think I've had these for a long time. Whenever i'm working in a dark room by the light of the CRT and my wife suddenly flips the light switch , I jump.

  • The designers should get with Rube Goldberg (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Zen Mastuh ( 456254 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @12:06PM (#3497689)

    Slightly off-topic, but imagine the merging of this technology with the whimsical, counter-intuitive machines of Rube Goldberg [rube-goldberg.com]. The nanosprings could be combined with nanoballs, nanochutes, nanoratchets, nanopteradactyls, etc... to fabricate imaginative contraptions that would only be visible to high-power microscopes.

  • kinky! (Score:2, Funny)

    by SharkPork ( 572539 )
    Azobenzene is known for its kinkiness. That made me laugh. After reading the article, I was thinking, "go go gadget" and some Maxwell Smart type things. Or maybe a fiber-optically powered hamster wheel? Is anyone else, at mention of nanotechnology, immediately reminded of MST3k? Speaking of Nanites, how about that one guy on techTV, that does the "Call for Help" segment? He reminds me of a nanite from MST3k every time I see him.

  • The logical conclusion... (Score:3, Funny)

    by ultramk ( 470198 ) <{ten.llebcap} {ta} {kmartlu}> on Friday May 10, 2002 @12:09PM (#3497714)
    an ensey-weensy Slinky.

    "look, it's walking!"
    "I can't see anything..."

  • It's a good thin when ... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    there are sites dedicated to Investing in nanotechnology.
    www.nanoinvestornews.com

  • nano-Tech (Score:2, Funny)

    by antitribue ( 524882 )
    Sure this whole tiny engine thing is good but I just want to know when this nano-technology is going to make ALL women as hot as 7 OF 9

  • Solar? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Jucius Maximus ( 229128 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @12:18PM (#3497797) Journal
    I wonder how feasable this would be in the long term as a replacement for solar panels. How much wattage can you get out of a square meter of light exposed surface?
    • Little magnets mounted on the spring, in little coils, changing the light path to the spring by their own movement? I like it. A huge field (huge=1cm**2) all making high-frequency AC, rectified and combined. DC with a blue-noise component.
      Unfortunately, at a working life under 24h, they'd be even less cost-effective than modern silicon cells.

  • Optics (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fabjep ( 154553 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @12:26PM (#3497852) Homepage
    If these things can be tuned to specific frequencies as was suggested, I would think this would have some fun oplications in digital photography miniaturization or transplant retinas or something like that.

  • Now they can make all sorts of cool stuff (Score:4, Funny)

    by Astrorunner ( 316100 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @12:36PM (#3497924) Journal
    Like shockabsorbers for nanocars.

    Retractable ball-point nanopens.

    And perhaps the best, what rolls down nanostairs, alone or in pairs, the nanoslinky.
  • Okay, so now we got the motors, the gears. Now all we need are the wheels, a good nanostereo system and GM can sell cars to bacteria.

    These things are all very interesting, but has anyone managed to do anything of use with them?

  • It seems to me that it's not really energy power that creates mechanical energy as in "energy conversion" but rather that light energy triggers something in the molecule.
    One specific frequency makes it contract, another one makes it expand itself, behaving then much like a spring and possibly moving a weight or bending a board.
    the article is light on details (no pun intended), but I don't feel the light energy, related to its frequency has much to do with the released, or activated mechanical energy, and it seems to me that in fact bending the board might represent more work from the molecule than what the activating light is providing, so I think some energy could be leaked from the molecule itself.
    Besides, the article says near the end that the molecule breaks after being used a whole day so that tere is work to be done, which makes me feel that indeed, some energy might be taken from the very molecule to achieve the "spring effect".
    But then, what work could they actually do against that ? the destruction of the structure is bound to happen unless the pure photonic energy is used in the experiment (but then, why would it break in the first place, and how would that work ?)
    Any chemist or physicist to correct me or explain me how this is working ?
    • If it weren't energy conversion, you would only be able to bend the board once. Otherwise you would be getting energy from nowhere, or "using up" the molecules. But if you were doing that, the thing would only work for a very short period of time, not a whole day. There are other mechanisms to explain the photodamage to the azobenzene. I don't know anything about this molecule in particular, but in general irreversible light damage occurs through either free radical reactions catalyzed by the light or bumping the electrons up to an energy state where they can fall to two (or more) separate states. One of these is the one you want, and the other one isn't, and each time a certain percentage of the molecules will get stuck there and not work any more.
      • If it weren't energy conversion, you would only be able to bend the board once. Otherwise you would be getting energy from nowhere, or "using up" the molecules
        Hmm yes, it's more or less what I was trying to imagine (if I understood you correctly), a long enough intricated molecule that could lose some electron in some of its parts due to the light, and gaining back the electrons from surrounding atoms, causing it to bend (for some reason)
        Then, another frequency would create a similar effect, but to other parts of the molecule, rebalancing it. This could be done again and again, with electrons being exchanged from here to there and back in the molecule, but sooner or later, some of them would be completely lost (ejected from the molecule).
        I suppose that when some electrons are partially ejected, the overall electrical balance is still met (neutral) but locally, electromagnetic dipoles are created forcing the molecules "parts" to get closer or farther...
        • But you're pulling energy out of the system by moving the board, and that energy has to come from somewhere. I don't know enough about the physics of what's really going on, but this is simple conservation of energy. However, I doubt that the force comes from electromagnetic dipoles. I think it's more likely that the light bumps up an electron, causing that atom to have a different type of orbital, bringing it into conjugation with other orbitals, which changes which conformation of the molecule ("long" or "short") is most stable, or something along those lines. But I am not a physicist or physical chemist by any means. However, bumping the electrons up to higher energy orbitals DOES directly convert the energy of that photon into a different form, and those electron orbital changes are the basis for the movement, so this system IS directly transducing the light into mechanical energy.
          • Yup, that's pretty much what I was trying to say. (sorry I do a bad job to do so)
            My point being, (about not transforming energy but rather releasing it, leading sooner or later to a destruction of the molecule) that it's not the energy of the photon that is transformed into mechanical energy (having the same energy out than in thus) but (mechanical) energy released (thank's to the photon).

  • Pure Sensationalism (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Snafoo ( 38566 )
    *Yawn*. Next, after the commercial break:

    -Scientists use magnetism to do stuff
    -Scientists use gravity to linearly accelerate falling objects
    -Scientists harness laws of physics in a creative fashion

    • Re:Pure Sensationalism (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      "- Scientists use gravity to linearly accelerate falling objects "

      WRONG!
      Now get out of my physics lab!
  • power of light to create mechanical energy

    Isn't it like solar car racing...on a really small scale? Eh? Something like this [wsc.org.au]?

  • Info about Nanotechnology... (Score:5, Informative)

    by dwheeler ( 321049 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @12:56PM (#3498038) Homepage Journal
    Presumably many readers know a little about nanotechnology, but in case you're looking for beginning information about it, here are a few places to look:
    1. Nanotechplanet's Nanotechnology FAQ [nanotechplanet.com]
    2. Foresight's FAQ about Molecular Nanotechnology [foresight.org]
    3. Richard Feynman's ``There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom'' [zyvex.com] (an old classic that essentially started the field).
    4. Engines of Creation (by K. Eric Drexler, Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1986)

  • flea circus (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rwa2 ( 4391 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @01:02PM (#3498087) Homepage Journal
    So if they get the diving board to move a filter that switches between the two wavelengths, they can make the nanospring flex cyclically?

    Boingy boingy boingy
  • I'm wondering...what will control these little robots when we finally figure out how to build them?

    You know...I think it will look a lot like Linux.

    Lots of little units all working together. Reminds me of the daemons of the Linux OS, or the good people who volunteer on OSS projects.

    Everything is getting smaller, and that's the way I like it.

  • Memory (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jhines0042 ( 184217 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @01:08PM (#3498126) Journal
    By shining one frequency of light on the device, the team was able to crimp the molecule, causing it to pull the diving board downward - converting light into mechanical energy. When another light frequency was used, the molecule relaxed.

    Not quite sure, but if the molecule stays in the kinked or relaxed state absent all light, could they not mount little mirrors on top that would swivel and then use this tech as a massive, persistent, extremely fast, storage mechanism? Sort of like a re-writeable CD but in solid state?

    • Who said the contraction happened quickly? My guess is that the contraction happens over a few milliseconds and not instantly. This would kinda default any memory applications. Although, here's to hoping :)
    • Not quite sure, but if the molecule stays in the kinked or relaxed state absent all light, could they not mount little mirrors on top that would swivel and then use this tech as a massive, persistent, extremely fast, storage mechanism? Sort of like a re-writeable CD but in solid state?

      I'll grant you that's an interesting concept. it would be interesting to see what comes of further research! Unfortunately, given the current state of the art, they currently have some trouble with the persistent part:

      Gaub acknowledged, however, that his molecular device is not ready for the marketplace. The chief impediment is that the molecule breaks after the experiment runs for a day.

      That leads me to wonder what kind of duty cycle they were putting this through. Even if it would not hold up in applications such as RAM, maybe it would be okay for something like flash memory? Also, although they have been able to turn it on/off with different frequencies of light, are those the only stimuli that could cause it to toggle? What about gamma rays and other forms of background radiation?

      I have some concerns about addressability, too. It's one thing to have millions of these that can all be turned on or off together with a broad beam of light... but how to do you address a single one of these? That's a single molecule that activates the spring! I'm not saying it's impossible, only that it's a non-trivial task to advance this to the point where its density would rival that of currently available DRAM chips!

  • Behold: the power of cheese.

  • Optical Tweezers (not so new...) (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    This isn't exactly new...

    This seems to be an application of "optical tweezers". The use of electromagnetic field gradients of a focused spot has been used to uncoil as well as determine the "spring constant" (tension) of single DNA strands.The technique has been fairly common for the past 5 years. All they have done here is attach a large molecule to a diving board. The DNA experiments have already demonstrated "simple machines", although in that case the DNA is the spring.

    DNA molecules grafted on silicon with optical tweezers [216.239.51.100]
    Femtonewton Force Spectroscopy of Single Extended DNA Molecules [216.239.51.100]

  • How about this ... Make each "diving board" a shiny mirror, and arrange them on top of transparent flat surface to create one large mirror.

    Now, shine a light through the transparent surface. The brighter the light, the more the mirror bends.

    You can use this two ways

    1. Project an image through the transparent bottom layer. The projected image will be reproduced by the reflected light off the mirrored top. Its an image amplifier. Something like those TI (?) chips they use in video projectors, only it amplifies light directly.

    2. Suitably adjust the light intensity through the transparent layer, and you have dynamically controlled mirror optics.
    Just thought I'd share that.
  • And plants have been doing it for millennia...
  • ... the heck did they attach the molecule? Molecular glue? A _very_ small nail? Those tiny moving things scare me.
  • Maybe I'll be looking into that Russian space shuttle for sale afterall. Wonder if I could get some Tang and space rations as an upgrade...
  • Long ago, in our terms, like 50 years, people could barely conceive nanotechnology.

    Now look at this..

    Nanotech has emerged in everyday surroundings: the newest sub-micron chip-lithography's smallest elements exist on the nanotech scale.

    Now we have pioneers. Like these scientists who have harnessed the power of light in a controllable way, on a very small scale.

    Can you conceive, perceive, or believe what this implies?

    Just try getting past the first part.
  • These guys have been doing it for a while:

    Laser tweezers [uq.edu.au]

    , of course, it begs the question as to whether the machine is minaturised is the power source is macroscopic.

  • I wonder, if you just let ordinary white light fall on the molecule, does it keep on bouncing wildly as it gets hit by different photons of the frequencies of light that it is sensitive to?

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