Introducing the nanoworld

Powering the Nanoworld

‘Robot’ is a word of Czech origin and describes a machine that automatically performs complicated, often repetitive tasks – while a machine is any assemblage of parts that transmit forces, motion, and energy one to another in a predetermined manner. Although these formal definitions derive from the macroscopic world, assemblage, transmission and repetition remain key issues in the development o...

Conferences in the nanoworld.

Nanopipette exploring nanoworld

Nanopipettes, with tip orifices on the order of tens to hundreds of nanometers, have been utilized in the fields of analytical chemistry and nanophysiology. Nanopipettes make nanofabrication possible at liquid/solid interfaces. Moreover, they are utilized in time-resolved measurements and for imaging biological materials, e.g., living cells, by using techniques such as scanning ion-conductance ...

Changing shapes in the nanoworld

What are the mechanisms leading to the shape relaxation of three-dimensional crystallites? Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of fcc clusters show that the usual theories of equilibration, via atomic surface diffusion driven by curvature, are verified only at high temperatures. Below the roughening temperature, the relaxation is much slower, kinetics being governed by the nucleation of a critical ...

Atomic Force Microscopy: probing the Nanoworld

Atomic Force Microscope and related techniques have played a key role in the development of the nanotechnology revolution that is taking place in science. This paper reviews the basic principles behind the technique and its different operation modes and applications, pointing out research works performed in the Nanometric Techniques Unit of the CCiTUB in order to exemplify the vast array of cap...