Quantum Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is based on manipulations of individual atoms and molecules to build complex atomic structures. Quantum nanotechnology is a broad concept that deals with a manipulation of individual quantum states of atoms and molecules. Quantum nanotechnology differs from nanotechnology as a quantum computer differs from a classical molecular computer. The nanotechnology deals with a manipulation of quantum states in bulk rather than individually. In this paper, we define the main notions of quantum nanotechnology. Quantum analogs of assemblers, replicators and self-reproducing machines are discussed. We prove the possibility of realizing these analogs. A self-cloning (self-reproducing) quantum machine is a quantum machine which can make a copy of itself. The impossibility of ideally cloning an unknown quantum state is one of the basic rules of quantum theory. We prove that quantum machines cannot be self-cloning if they are Hamiltonian. There exist quantum non-Hamiltonian machines that are self-cloning machines. Quantum nanotechnology allows us to build quantum nanomachines. These nanomachines are not only small machines of nanosize. Quantum nanomachines should use new (quantum) principles of work.