amazing Nanotechnology – Images -materials science. Images can often convey information in a way that tables of data or equations cannot match

Introduction to Nanotechnology – Images Visualization methods provide an important tool in materials science for the analysis and presentation of scientific work. Images can often convey information in a way that tables of data or equations cannot match. Occasionally, scientific images transcend their role as a medium for transmitting information, and contain the aesthetic qualities that transform them into objects of beauty and art. Developing new instruments to be able to “see” at the nanoscale is a research field in itself. Shown here is the tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM), one of the foremost tools for imaging, measuring and manipulating matter at the nanoscale. Here, a platinum electrode measuring one hundredth of a nanometer has been deposited on the tip of this pyramid shaped AFM tip via focused ion beam (FIB) deposition. (Image: C. Menozzi, G.C. Gazzadi, S3 (INFM-CNR), Modena. Artwork: Lucia Covi) Nano-Explosions – Color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph of an overflowed electrodeposited magnetic nanowire array (CoFeB), where the template has been subsequently completely etched. It’s a reminder that nanoscale research can have unpredicted consequences at a high level. (Image: Fanny Beron, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada) Climatic change on carbon nanotubes – Carbon nanotubes have many characteristics that promise to revolutionize the world of structural materials. There are different ways to grow carbon nanotubes, especially the CVD technique, which allows obtaining SWCNT’s on a silicon surface. These SWCNT can be carried from the silicon surface to another surface, as HOPG, without suffering changes on their properties. That means nanomanipulation of carbon nanotubes. (Mr Miguel Ângel Fernández Vindel, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid/Spain) The imaged object is a single crystalline diamond grain that is anisotropically etched by hot spheres of molten nickel (red). Self-organized nickel particles are obtained by sintering a thin Ni film (100 nm) that is evaporated on a polished diamond substrate. Self-organisation and etching are conducted by the following annealing procedure: 1000°C in 500 mbar H2, 24 h. (Image: Waldemar Smirnov, Fraunhofer Institut Angewandte Festkörperphysik, Germany) Nano PacMan made of copper oxide. Scanning electron microscope image of a copper oxide cluster, 3.5 microns in diameter, prepared by evaporation and condensation over an alumina substrate. The smiley nose and eye are present in the original SEM image, which has only been color-enhanced. (Image: Elisabetta Comini, University of Brescia, Italy) Nano orchard and other amazing nanotechnology images

(Nanowerk News) Here is another installment of our collection of amazing images from nanotechnology labs from all over the world. You can find other nanotechnology images here.

As a special feature of recent MRS Meetings, the MRS has offered the popular Science as Art competitions, with entry open to all registered meeting attendees. The images below represent the winners of the 2014 MRS Spring Meeting Science as Art competition.

You can see all galleries here on the MRS website: Science as Art

NanoOrchard – Electrochemically overgrown CuNi nanopillars. (Image courtesy of the Materials Research Society Science as Art Competition and Josep Nogues, Institut Catala de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia (ICN2), Spain, and A. Varea, E. Pellicer, S. Suriñach, M.D. Baro, J. Sort, Univ. Autonoma de Barcelona)

LadyNanoBug – This image is a scanning electron micrograph of ZnO nanorods epitaxially grown on a CuGaO2 nanoplate in aqueous solution. The high preferential nucleation and growth of ZnO on CuGaO2 is evident in this image since there is no growth on the surrounding silicon substrate. This object resembles a lady bug and has been false colored to emphasize this unique morphology. (Image courtesy of the Materials Research Society Science as Art Competition and Audrey S. Forticaux, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Piezoresponse force microscopy image of the ferroelectric domain structure of hexagonal ErMnO3. Dark and bright areas correspond to opposite out-of-plane directions of the polarization. Note the vortex-like meeting points of six domains. (Image courtesy of the Materials Research Society Science as Art Competition and Manfred Fiebig, ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

At the Crystal Frontier False color SEM image of warring CaCO3 polymorphs showing the transformation of vaterite (left) to the more stable calcite (right) on the surface of a hierarchical mineral tube grown from a gel-liquid interface. (Image courtesy of the Materials Research Society Science as Art Competition and Casper Ibsen, Aarhus University, Denmark)

Horrific Hidden Teeth – FIB section of a silicon nanowires carpet. (Image courtesy of the Materials Research Society Science as Art Competition andEmanuele Enrico, INRiM, Italy)

Alien monsters and other amazing nanotechnology images

(Nanowerk News) Here is another installment of our collection of amazing images from nanotechnology labs from all over the world. You can find other nanotechnology images here.

Visualization methods provide an important tool in materials science for the analysis and presentation of scientific work. Images can often convey information in a way that tables of data or equations cannot match. Occasionally, scientific images transcend their role as a medium for transmitting information, and contain the aesthetic qualities that transform them into objects of beauty and art.

As a special feature of recent MRS Meetings, the MRS has offered the popular Science as Art competitions, with entry open to all registered meeting attendees. The images below represent the winners of the 2013 MRS Fall Meeting Science as Art competition.

You can see all galleries here on the MRS website: Science as Art

Alien – A piece of debris on a sample covered with MBE-grown InAs nanowires. Seen with the electron microscope. (Image courtesy of the Materials Research Society Science as Art Competition and Marcel Mueller, IMS TU Dortmund)

Crystal rose – Scanning electron microscopy image of a 50 micrometer high self-assembled micro-flower made from barium carbonate and silica. (Image courtesy of the Materials Research Society Science as Art Competition and Wim Noorduin, Harvard University)

Down the rabbit hole: Adventures in nanoscienceScanning electron microscopy of a cracked inverse opal scaffold used in microbattery electrodes. (Image courtesy of the Materials Research Society Science as Art Competition and James Pikul, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

A family portrait of magnetic dipoles A family portrait of magnetic droplets. The image is a composite photograph of ferrofluid droplets on a superhydrophobic surface at varying magnetic field strengths. The “eyes” are reflections from two lamps. (Image courtesy of the Materials Research Society Science as Art Competition and Robin Ras, Aalto University)

Desert landscape on micron scale – A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of GaAs substrate cleavage plane after nanowire growth. The hill and cliff structures result from imperfect alignment with the cleavage plane orientation while cleaving the substrate. Features that resemble cactus and bushes result from nanowire growth. During nanowire growth, the sides of the substrate (cleavage planes) are exposed to nanowire growth conditions and heterogeneous nucleation of nanowires may occur. The top of the substrate, where nanowires nucleate and grow in a controlled manner has the scientific importance; however, the side of the substrate can give rise to interesting images. This image is constructed by stitching two SEM images and cropping the desired portion. (Image courtesy of the Materials Research Society Science as Art Competition and Sema Ermez, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (Nanowerk News) Help Argonne choose the winners of its 2013 Art of Science contest. The annual contest calls for lab employees and users of Argonne’s facilities to submit images and photographs that showcase their research. Some are computer simulations, some are photographs, and some are taken with incredibly powerful transmission electron microscopes that see down to nearly atomic level; all of them show the stunning intersection of beauty and science in Argonne’s world-class labs. Votes will be accepted through Nov. 1, 2013. Here are some examples of images from the contest: These tiny cadmium nanorods are so small that the entire field of vision is just 13 x 13 nanometers (for scale, your fingernails grow about 1 nanometer per second). It was taken with a transmission electron microscope with color added. These are droplets of metallic indium on a silicon oxide surface. Metallic droplets are a stage in the process to grow nanowires, which scientists are studying for future generations of batteries and other technologies. The nanowires need something to “climb” on to start growing–that’s why some of the droplets appear to be covered by ice-like sheets and crystals. (The original black & white scanning electron microscopy image has color added) Scientifically, this electron microscope image depicts the emergence of silicon nano strands (green) from an indium droplet (blue) during a plasma-assisted physical vapor deposition growth process. The blue balloon is an indium droplet. The growing silicon nanostrands (which form the string) lift the balloon from a silicon wafer substrate – the nanostrand is speckled with indium droplets. Metaphorically, the image portrays a night scene lit up by glowing lights. A blue balloon dances through the night sky, followed by a glowing trail of dusty light. There is something hopeful about the one blue balloon with its speckled tail. It dances playfully and engages the viewer, flying through the sky followed by a trail of dusty light. A gold-tipped cadmium nanorod covered with gold nanoparticles – which is just 115 nanometers across. (That’s smaller than the diameter of an HIV virus.) Image taken by a scanning transmission electron microscope with color added. This “planet” is actually a very tiny droplet of indium (blue) with silicon nano-strands (green) growing around it. Scientists can use a special vapor deposition process to create unique materials, then use an extremely powerful electron microscope to see it and study its behavior. (With color added) The tallest “mountains” in the landscape below are actually only a few nanometers high (about how long your fingernails have grown while reading this). It’s made out of lead titanate, which has unique properties and is widely used in sensors and actuators. The image, which has color added, was created using atomic force microscopy. ‘Carbon Galaxy’ and other amazing nanotechnology images (Nanowerk News) Here is another installment of our collection of amazing images from nanotechnology labs from all over the world. You can find other nanotechnology images here. Visualization methods provide an important tool in materials science for the analysis and presentation of scientific work. Images can often convey information in a way that tables of data or equations cannot match. Occasionally, scientific images transcend their role as a medium for transmitting information, and contain the aesthetic qualities that transform them into objects of beauty and art. As a special feature of recent MRS Meetings, the MRS has offered the popular Science as Art competitions, with entry open to all registered meeting attendees. The images below represent the winners of the 2012 MRS Fall Meeting Science as Art competition. You can see all galleries here on the MRS website: Science as Art Carbon Galaxy. Scanning electron micrograph of spherical carbon particles, prepared at high temperature and pressure, mimics the galaxy. Technologically, these spherical particles are of interest as lithium-ion battery electrodes and as lubrication additives to reduce friction and wear in gasoline-powered engines. (Vilas Pol, Michael Tackeray, Dean Miller and Michele Nelson, Argonne National Laboratory) ©MRS Not your average sunflower. Colorized SEM image of ZnO crystallites blooming on the surface of single crystalline hexage of gold. The gold plate is obtained through solution-based thermolysis. The ZnO is nucleated and grown through a 2-step solution synthesis. (John Joo, Harvard University; Background image of sunflowers was taken by Monica Scanlan) ©MRS Micro Spacecraft. The collage shows two false color SEM images. The ZnS spacecraft (~20 µm in length) predominantly consists of hexagonal platelets, which are obtained by thermal decomposition of a molecular source under solvothermal conditions. The globular planets represent porous LiFePO4 microspheres (~3 µm in diameter) prepared by a solvothermal approach. (Sven Barth, Vienna University of Technology) ©MRS Screw dislocation network in alumina. Screw dislocation network formed in a (0001) / [0001] twist grain boundary in an alumina bicrystal. The network consists of hexagonal units due to the three-fold symmetry about the c-axis, and the size of each unit is about 50nm. The ribbon-like structures lying along the vertical direction correspond to planar voids between the crystals. The image was taken along the [0001] zone axis by using a transmission electron microscope (JEOL, JEM-2010HC, 200kV). (Eita Tochigi, University of Tokyo) ©MRS The Happy 2D World. 2-D Ti3C2 layers were produced by etching Al from Ti3AIC2, a member of the ternary transition metal carbides called MAX Phases. Given its similarities with graphene, it was labeled “MXene.” (Babak Anasori, Michael Naguib, Yury Gogotsi and Michel W. Barsoum, Drexel University) ©MRS ‘Nano Graveyard’ and other amazing nanotechnology images (Nanowerk News) Here is another installment of our collection of amazing images from nanotechnology labs from all over the world. You can find other nanotechnology images here. Visualization methods provide an important tool in materials science for the analysis and presentation of scientific work. Images can often convey information in a way that tables of data or equations cannot match. Occasionally, scientific images transcend their role as a medium for transmitting information, and contain the aesthetic qualities that transform them into objects of beauty and art. As a special feature of recent MRS Meetings, the MRS has offered the popular Science as Art competitions, with entry open to all registered meeting attendees. The images below represent some of the best entries from past meetings. You can see all galleries here on the MRS website: Science as Art “A dendritic baby giraffe born inside Ni-Ac-C melt. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image depicts a baby giraffe formed within a jungle of Ni-Al-C dendrites. As the molten alloy was being solidified inside a graphitic crucible, the melt was decanted, leaving behind a little dendrite wetted by a thin molten blanket. As the jungle got colder, the blanket froze and rejected carbon which eventually crystallized as a graphite cover. Upon further cooling, the graphitic cover wrinkled, due to its thermal expansion coefficient mismatch with metallic substrate, creating a faceted network of creases resembling the familiar skin patches of a giraffe. (Shaahin Amini and Reza Abbaschian, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California Riverside) Still life of flowers, mushrooms and other vegetation. Made by capillary self assembly of carbon nanotubes. (M. De Volder, S. Tawfick and A.J. Hart) Van Gogh painted with a glassy polymer. Block copolymer lamellae self-assembled in thin films recreate the distinctive brush strokes of Post-Impressionist paintings. (Mark Stoykovich) Nano graveyard. The “Nano Graveyard” is a thin film of tin (II) sulfide prepared by a solution method with post-annealing and was imaged using scanning electron microscopy at a low incidence angle. The width of the image covers approximately 10 microns. Part of the film has been artificially colored to represent a lumpy ground of moss or grass while the protruding crystals, resembling tombstones, and have been left unaltered. These cenotaphs commemorate the material “Gray Goo”, who, after a notorious career of public fear-mongering, has gently been laid to rest. Kindly pay your respects. (Steven Herron, Stanford University) Nano flower. Nano Flower made of zinc oxide, Scanning electron microscope image of zinc oxide nanowire arrays with flower-like form. (Hyun Wook Kang) The dark forest of GaAs/GaInP nanowires. Looking into the dark forest of GaAs/GaInP nanowires imaged by SEM. The nanowires were grown in two steps: first the GaAs stem using a Au particle as seed particle in MOVPE. The sample was removed from the reactor and a layer of HSQ resist was applied by spinning, forming a thin layer of moss. When the GaInP was grown during a second MOVPE step, the resist prevented growth on the substrate and sidewalls of the GaAs stems. The image is artificially colorized, but based on EDS measurements; light green represents GaInP and light brown/red GaAs. The substrate and base of GaAs nanowires has a dark green color to represent the areas where thicker resist was detected. (Daniel Jacobsson, Lund University) The cliff of the two-dimensional world.When the layered ternary compound, Ti3AlC2, is placed in hydrofluoric acid, the Al layers are selectively etched away resulting in two dimensional (2-D) layers of Ti3C2 weakly bonded to each other. The image shows a number of these particles, where exfoliation is obvious. Like graphene, individual layers can be isolated and their properties explored. Since Ti3AlC2 is a member of a large family of layered solids called MAX phases – that number over 60 – and given the similarities with graphene, we are calling this new family of 2-D solids “MXene.” This image was chosen to represent a new frontier – that is only visible from the cliff – in the world of 2-D materials that will indubitably play an important role in the future. (Babak Anasori, Michael Naguib, Yury Gogotsi, Michel W. Barsoum)

 

The Silk Collective, moon rises, and other winning nanotechnology images

(Nanowerk News) Here is another installment of our collection of amazing images from nanotechnology labs from all over the world. You can find other nanotechnology images here.

During the 2010 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston, MA in December, the MRS conducted the tenth installment of the popular “Science as Art” competition (View winners from past competitions). Here are the six first-place and second-place winners:

The silk collective. Silk, produced by the silkworm Bombyx mori, has been viewed for millennia as a prestigious and valuable material. This protein has recently found application as a high technology material in biomedical micro- and nanotechnology. This scanning electron microscopy image depicts a detail of a micro patterned silk surface, fabricated with an all-aqueous micro molding technique. The silk structures, measuring approximately one micrometer in diameter, were fabricated at room temperature and under ambient pressure. The research is performed in Prof. Fiorenzo Omenetto’s group (Ultrafast Nonlinear Optics and Biophotonics Laboratory) and is part of “the silk collective” at Tufts University. (Image: Konstantinos Tsioris, Tufts University)

Stem of nanoflowers. SThis picture is created from a high resolution SEM image of zinc oxide “nanoflowers” synthesized by a physical vapor deposition technique. (Image: Abhishek Prasad, Michigan Technological University)

Surfacing Turtle. Calcium carbonate crystals mineralized on a chitosan thin film. Image taken in a scanning electron microscope with the secondary electron detector at 6 kV. The sample was coated with Pt/Pd for 30 seconds. (Image: Philipp Hunger, Drexel University)

Rising Moon. Tin Ball on KOH-etched Si surface appears like the moon rising above Si pyramids. This image was obtained using a scanning electron microscope at 16,100x magnification and was colorized using Adobe Photoshop. (Image: Sedat Canli, Middle East Technical University)

Aurora Zinc Oxide. This picture was created from the convergence of a high-resolution cross-sectional and a plan view SEM image of a zinc oxide “nanowall structure” synthesized by a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition technique. Color was added to the original image. (Image: Dong Chan Kim, Sungkyunkwan University)

Grassland Sunrise. High-resolution SEM image of germanium/silicon core/shell heterostructure nanowires (diameter ∼10 nm) synthesized by a two-step chemical vapor deposition method on a layered Si/SiO2 substrate. (Image: Yongjie Hu, Harvard University)

Nice pics – A good Micrograph is worth more than the MegaByte it consumes

(Nanowerk News) Here is another installment of our collection of amazing images from nanotechnology labs from all over the world. You can find other nanotechnology images here.

Here are some of the images from a micro- and nanograph contest held at the 36th International Conference on Micro & Nano Engineering (MNE), held in Genoa, Italy from September 19 to 22, 2010

You can also download a pdf with all 60 entries.

“Trapped Zig Zag Snake” Scanning electron microscope image of a copper oxide cluster, 3.5 microns in diameter, prepared by evaporation and condensation over an alumina substrate. The smiley nose and eye are present in the original SEM image, which has only been color-enhanced. (Image: Anton Koeck, Elise Brunet, Stephan Steinhauer, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Health & Environment Department, Nano Systems)

“Falling…” After electroplating of gold a small adhesion problem seemed to occur and all split rings looked like after an earthquake. (Image: Birgit Päivänranta, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland)

“Chocolate Chip Cookies” Micro-spheres of 7.5µm thick SU-8 resist exposed by EBL with 25kV. Cross-linked resist exceeds the boundaries of the spheres and tries to reach the neighbor sphere This results in free standing bridges with gaps in between. (Image: Guido Piaszenski, Raith GmbH, Dortmund, Germany)

“The Oriental Orchid” The zinc oxide fibers look like the oriental orchid. The smooth curve of ZnO orchid shows the beauty of the orient. (Image: Sang Han Park, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea)

“Lithography has got brains” A ball of unknown particles on a lithographically patterned elastomer surface. (Image: Peter Nill, Institute of Applied Physics, Eberhard-Karls-Univerität Tübingen, Germany)

“At the Reflection Pool” Gold nanoparticle contamination on an evaporated gold film and buckled nanoimprint resist. (Image: Keith Morton, National Research Council Canada)

ZnO Nanowire Arrays SEM image of vertically aligned ZnO nanowire arrays with a standing human-like form. Color was added to the original image. (Image:Surawut Chuangchote, Kyoto University )

Self-illuminating flowers of Pandora This picture is created from a high resolution SEM image of a zinc oxide “nanoflower” synthesized by a physical vapor deposition technique. (Image: Jian Shi, University of Wisconsin )

Micro Sea MA scanning electron microscope image of the 250 nm diameter polymer fibers capturing 2 µm polymer spheres by evaporative self-assembly. The image brings to mind eggs of fish on marine plants in the sea. The SEM image was taken by a Zeiss Ultra 55 field emission scanning electron microscope and color enhancement was done using Adobe Photoshop. (Image: Sung H. Kang, Harvard University)

Bad Pitch SEM image of microbeads lying outside a self-assembled 500 micron sized box. (Image: David Gracias, Johns Hokins University)

Watermelon on Pandora Colorized SEM image of the superparamagnetic poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) microspheres with Fe2O3 nanocrystals self-assembly on the surface and inside. (Image: Yongxing Hu, University of California, Riverside)

Of Van Gogh nanotubes and nano-witches – winning nanotechnology images

(Nanowerk News) During the 2009 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston, MA last year, the MRS conducted the eigth installment of the popular “Science as Art” competition (View winners from past competitions). Here are the six first-place and second-place winners:

Squaring the Circle The imaged object is a single crystalline diamond grain that is anisotropically etched by hot spheres of molten nickel (red). Self-organized nickel particles are obtained by sintering a thin Ni film (100 nm) that is evaporated on a polished diamond substrate. Self-organisation and etching are conducted by the following annealing procedure: 1000°C in 500 mbar H2, 24 h. (Image: Waldemar Smirnov, Fraunhofer Institut Angewandte Festkörperphysik, Germany)

SiC-SiC Composite SEM observation of a mechanical test performed on a SiC-SiC composite. (Image: Francois Willaime, CEA/Saclay, France)

Van Gogh Nanotubes From the mind of Vincent van Gogh to the surface of self-assembled arrays of carbon nanotubes. This image obtained via scanning electron microscopy, evokes the magnum opus of Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night. These arrays are formed from a dried dispersion of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) dispersed in water with a polymer PVP and a surfactant SDBS. The average width of a small SWNT bundle shown here is ∼1 µm. False color was added with Adobe Photoshop. (Image: Mariela Bravo-Sanchez, Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, Mexico)

Dandelion Parachute Ball in the Nano-World Multiple scanning electron microscope images of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) at different length scales. The BNNTs were synthesized by catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) at 1200°C. Various interesting morphologies can be formed on a Si substrate, depending on the methods of catalyst deposition. The actual diameter of the BNNTs is typically ∼50nm. (Image: Chee Huei Lee, Michigan Technological University, USA)

Indian Summer Polycrystalline Ni-Mn-Ga magnetic shape memory alloy with a twin boundary structure (imaged with a polarized optical microscope). (Image: Claudia Hürrich, IFW Dresden, Germany)

Nano-Witch SEM image of crystalline wurtzite zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructure synthesized via vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) method. (Image: Wen Hsun Tu, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan)

Nano-Kamasutra and other nanotechnology images

(Nanowerk News) The 52nd International Electron Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication (EIPBN) Conference announced six Micrograph Contest winners at its annual Conference held this year in Portland, Oregon May 27-30.

The 2008 Grand Prize was won by T. Pinedo and D. Peyrade of the ColloNa team LTM-CNRS in France for a micrograph of self-assembled 1µm and 200nm polystyrene beads taken at 18,000x magnification with an SEM Hitachi 4000 electron microscope. Other winners included micrographs taken with ion microscopes and optical microscopes and a video taken with an electron microscope.

“The EIPBN Micrograph Contest attracts many bizarre and beautiful images taken by engineers and scientists in pursuit of cutting-edge technology,” said Dr. Randall, vice president of Zyvex Labs. “The most amazing images are often a result of what went wrong and what can be learned from experimentation.”

Dr. John Randall has been running the contest for the EIPBN Conference for 14 years. Zyvex, a leading nanotechnology company, has hosted the contest since 2001. All of the winners and honorable mentions are available on the Zyvex Labs website at: http://www.zyvexlabs.com/EIPBNuG/uGraph.html.

The EIPBN Conference is the world’s leading symposium on lithography and nanofabrication. The conference attracts researchers from all over the world to present papers on science and engineering of fabricating, electronic, storage, mechanical, biological, and other devices and structures at the nano-scale.

Grand Prize: Begining of Life Description: Self-assembled 1µm and 200nm polystyrene beads. Magnification: (3″x4″ image): 18,000X Instrument: SEM HITACHI 4000 Submitted by: T. Pinedo and D. Peyrade. Affiliation: ColloNa team LTM-CNRS.

Best Photon Micrograph: Nano Pacifier. Description: Optical micrograph of first imprint at our nanocenter. Pattern is a radial array used for crystallographic orientation for Si wet etch. Image was obtained in polarization mode. Magnification: (3″x4″ image): 100 x Instrument: Olympus MX-61 Submitted by: L. Ocola and R. Divan. Affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Lab.

Best Ion Micrograph: Nano Caviar. Description: Spider Eggs on Convoluted Membrane. Magnification: (3″x4″ image): 4,000X Instrument: Zeiss ORION Submitted by: John Notte. Affiliation: Carl Zeiss SMT.

Most Bizarre Micrograph: Kama Sutra. Description: The corrosion protection layer for copper metalization was thick but having pin-holes, so the corrosive stuff entered through the pin-hole (the darkest spot) and then propagated in a branching manner under the inhibition layer (which obviously did not work). Magnification: (3″x4″ image): 500x Instrument: Optical microscope Sony AL 100M. Submitted by: Yehiel Gotkis. Affiliation: KLA-Tencor Corp.

Bending the Rules! Description: CVD grown Carbon nanotubes. Magnification: 12KX Instrument: Philips XL30 Submitted by: Michael Häffner. Affiliation: Universität Tübingen.

Beautiful nanotechnology images from the SPMage09 contest

(Nanowerk News) The Most Beautiful Images Of The Nanoworld: Winners Of The Second Edition Of The International Contest Spmage09

An international jury of prominent researchers in the field of SPM judged the images submitted to the Image Prize competition. Here are the five winners.

First place

Human malaria (Plasmodium malariae) infected red blood cells. Li Ang, National University of Singapore (Singapore)

Second place

Atom Spangled Patchwork. Sander Otte, NIST-Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (United States)

Third place

Winter-time Nanofishing. Sviatlana Abetkovskaia, A.V. Luikov, Heat and Mass Transfer Institute (Belarus)

Fourth Prize

Venis of Coral. Francesco Mantegazza, Universita’ degli studi di Milano-Bicocca (Italy)

Fifth Prize

Looking for the summer ice. Mar Cardellach Redon, Centre d’Investigació en Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia (Spain)

Beautiful nanotechnology images from the SPMage competition

(Nanowerk News) To recognize the continuing contributions that Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPMs) have made to advances in Nanotechnology, an International SPM Image Competition last year identified important and remarkable SPM images.

An international jury of prominent researchers in the field of SPM judged the images submitted to the Image Prize competition. Here are the top three winners plus some other beautiful entries:

First place

Nano Rings – The image shows a four-terminal quantum ring structure defined in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) with local anodic oxidation using an atomic force microscope tip. The elevated white lines represent the oxide on the surface of the GaAlAs heterosstructure containing the 2DEG. These oxide lines are on average 15nm high and penetrate just as deep into the sample surface, forming barriers in the electron gas below. The ring has an average diameter of 1 micron and the four outer rectangular areas enclosed by oxide lines are used as in-plane gates to tune the electron density of the four arms of the ring. Measuring Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the ring conductance this device is used to interferometrically detect the relative phaseshift of Coulomb blockade resonances in two quantum dots induced in the arms of the ring. (Dr Andreas Fuhrer, Nanophysics Group of Prof. Ensslin at ETH Zürich/Switzerland)

Second place

The surface of human red blood cells after treatment with an antibiotic peptide – Phyllomelittin is a novel antibiotic peptide isolated from the skin of the monkey frog Phyllomedusa hypochondrialis. It has been demonstrated that antibiotic peptides exert their activities by disrupting cell membranes. Therefore, the study of the effects of such peptides on cell membranes has been the focus of intense research efforts using the atomic force microscopy (AFM). The aim of this study was to investigate the surface of human red blood cells (RBCs) after treatment with phyllomelittin. The cells were deposited onto a glass slide (blue) and fixed with methanol for 5 minutes. The image shows the intermittent contact mode topography (14.5 µm x 14.5 µm x 819 nm) of three RBCs after 25 minutes of incubation with phyllomelittin at 32 µM. A large number of elevations of few nanometers (yellow) were found to be distributed heterogeneously on the RBCs surface (red), presumably reflecting the regions of the cell membrane disrupted by and/or interacting with phyllomelittin molecules. (Dr Luciano Paulino Silva, EMBRAPA Recursos Genéticos e biotecnología Brasilia/Brazil)

Third place

Root – The ability to control the size of conductive nanostructures and to manipulate them on a nanometer scale are priority subjects in the field of nanotechnology. One of the promising way for miniaturization is a template direct method. Polyelectrolytes molecules (PE) offers a range of interesting properties, such as, unique recognition, association and ability to assemble conductive polymers and metals. That is why PE are one of the most attractive templates. The ability to reproducibly create and align well-stretched PE molecules very important for realizing nanoscale electronics. We developed a simple method creating highly aligned PE molecules, which enabled us to straighten and fix PE molecules on the surface without any surface modification or special equipment. Some times, during our AFM measurement, we found unusual structures. One of them have been chosen for SPMAGE07. This image represent part of PE network absorbed on hydrophobic surface. (Mr. Konstantin Demidenok, Leibniz-Institut fur Polymer Forshung Dresden/Germay)

Other entries

Escherichia coli (E. coli) with Pili and Flagella – An Escherichia coli cell is imaged using tapping mode AFM under dry condition. Well preserved pili and flagella structures can be seen clearly. The size of the cell is about 1.9um long and 1um wide. The width of pili is about 20nm and flagella is about 30nm. (Mr Ang Li, National University of Singapore)

Nano-Clover – AFM microscopy has emerged as an efficient tool to observe molecules deposited on a surface, specially the changes suffered after induction of external factors. The image shows fibres after treatment with ultrasounds of a bismuth cluster (2 nm high). It is interesting to observe the singular arrangement of the fibres on the surface at the first moments after deposition. (Mrs Lorena Welte Hidalgo, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid/Spain)

Fantasy – MMX polymers are a particular type of coordination polymer assembled by dimetallic subunits bridged by halides (Cl, Br or I). This kind of compounds is very attractive because of their chemical-physical properties, such as magnetism, electrical conduction, etc… In order to study MMX properties by AFM, the polymers have to be deposited on a surface. The resulting deposition depends on the surface and on the concentration of the sample. In our case, the samples were deposited on a HOPG surface. At low concentrations, the AFM image shows a single MMX polymer, whereas at higher concentrations, superposition of MMXs builds a layer with a peculiar topography, shown in the image. (Dr Rodrigo Gonzalez Prieto, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid/Spain)

Climatic change on carbon nanotubes – Carbon nanotubes have many characteristics that promise to revolutionize the world of structural materials. There are different ways to grow carbon nanotubes, especially the CVD technique, which allows obtaining SWCNT’s on a silicon surface. These SWCNT can be carried from the silicon surface to another surface, as HOPG, without suffering changes on their properties. That means nanomanipulation of carbon nanotubes. (Mr Miguel Ângel Fernández Vindel, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid/Spain)

Quantum Forest – GeSi quantum dots on Si, average diameter approx. 70 nm, typical height approx. 15 nm. (Mr Thorsten Dziomba. Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Germany)

To see the entire collection of 51 images go to the SPMage07 site.

Winning nanotechnology images from the Science as Art competition

(Nanowerk News) The 2008 MRS Spring Meeting concluded in San Francisco on March 28. As a special feature of the meeting, the MRS conducted the fifth installment of the popular “Science as Art” competition. (View winners from past competitions). The competition was open to all meeting attendees, with entries on display in the Moscone West Convention Center. Here are the six first-place and second-place awards:

Jumper Sometimes the thesis just gets to be too much… This image is of some contamination (probably monodisperse polystyrene spheres from a previous user) in the microscope which just happened to collect at the corner of a Ta2O5 particle. The image was collected using secondary electrons in a Hitachi S-4700 SEM and was colorized using the Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). (Image: Georff Brennecka, Sandia National Laboratories)

Chinese painting This image was color-added from one ZnO nanoneedle SEM image. The nanoneedles look like beautiful mountains in a Chinese painting. (Image: Hui Ying Yang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Field of Sunflowers Amorphous SiOx nanowire bundles have an uncanny ability to self-assemble into various shapes, including one that strikingly resembles a sunflower. In these sunflowers, highly packed bundles form the disc florets and loosely packed ones around the rim of the disc form the ray florets. The scanning electron image shows a field of sunflowers. The grey-scale image was mapped into pseudo-colors by graphic software. The nanowires grew out of the reaction of Si and oxygen, with molten Ga and Au acting as catalysts. Each nanowire is about 10 nm in diameter and tens of micrometers in length. (Image: S.K. Hark, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Landscape painting This is a cross-polarized light optical microphotograph of an array of organic thin-film transistors (OTFT) fabricated with newly synthesized, highly crystalline 4T-TMS organic semiconductor deposited by newly developed solution-shearing method. Besides the excellent performances these new OTFTs exhibited, this microphotograph represents itself an aesthetic landscape painting full of beauty and art— different parts of the cross polarized thin film look like lakes, lands, mountains and sunglows, while the gold electrodes of the transistors seem to be a fence between lakes and far-away mountains… (Image: Zihong Liu, Stanford University)

Inferno Color-enhanced TEM micrograph showing twins and strain contrast in a post-compression [111] NiTi micropillar. The micropillar was produced via FIB milling and was compressed using a nanoindenter equipped with a flat punch. By creating and testing compression pillars in a range of diameters, this method allows us to study the effect of size scale on the shape memory behavior of NiTi. (Image: Blythe Gore Clarkk, Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung)

Big Bang AFM image of a sputtered Au(001) single crystal. (Image: Violeta Navarro, Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

 

We have a collection of these amazing images in some of our articles on Nanowerk. You can find them here:

 

Blow-up: The startling landscapes of nanotechnology

 

Science as Art (Fall 2007)

 

SPMage07 competition

Beautiful nanotechnology images from the Science as Art competition

(Nanowerk News) The 2007 Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting concluded in Boston on November 30. This was the first time that the popular Science as Art competition was held at an MRS Fall Meeting. Three first place and three second place winners were selected from the various entries. Some of the images are from the nanotechnology domain but most are micro-scale.

First place winners

Nano-Explosions Color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph of an overflowed electrodeposited magnetic nanowire array (CoFeB), where the template has been subsequently completely etched. It’s a reminder that nanoscale research can have unpredicted consequences at a high level. (Image: Fanny Beron, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, Canada)

Bamboos for Vibration Control Ni-Mn-Ga melt-extracted fibers with an approximate diameter of 100 µm showing a bamboo-type structure (imaged with a backscattered electron detector in an FEG-SEM). Melt-extraction is a unique and novel method to prepare single-crystalline particles for magnetic shape memory composites. (Image: Oliver Gutfleisch, IFW Dresden, Institute of Metallic Materials, Dresden, Germany)

Dirty Dice Self-assembled 200 micron size nickel dice, imaged using scanning electron microscopy in the lower secondary electron (LEI) mode. The dice were colorized using Adobe Photoshop. (Image: Timothy Leong, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA)

Second place winners

Beauty of Nature SEM image of CuInSe2 film with Cu2Se (plates) and InSe (needles) crystals on the surface. (Image: Olga Volobujeva, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia)

Layered steps in Lanthanum Cobaltite The picture shows a colored image of the layered steps formed inside closed pores of La0.8Ca0.2CoO3, which were revealed due to fracture of the material. (Image: Siddhartha Pathak, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA)

Red Planet Combined 3-D representation of two images taken by scanning tunneling microscopy. The land is from an STM image of one monolayer of HATNA deposited on Au(111), and the sky is from an image of THAP/Au(111) exposed to a high background pressure of cobaltocene. (Image: Sieu Ha, Princeton University, Princeton, USA)

Blow-up: The startling landscapes of nanotechnology

(Nanowerk Spotlight) The nanoworld cannot be portrayed with a camera, nor can it be seen even with the most powerful optical microscope. Only special instruments have access to images of the nanoworld. A fascinating new exhibition “Blow-up: images from the nanoworld” in Modena/Italy shows the work of scientists associated with the National Center on Nanostructures and Biosystems at Surfaces in Modena, Italy, headed by Elisa Molinari. The images have been manipulated in a variety of ways by photographer, Lucia Covi. Covi is particularly sensible to the aesthetic paradigms of scientists: her gaze thus grasps essential aspects of the portrayed objects and allows her to shine them with a new light, as they are revealed now. This exhibition brings to the public images that are usually accessible to few, because they remain confined in the research laboratories, on the scientists’ desks. The images are stills that, over time, have been put together from different framings, and that we can look at thanks to the mediation of machines. Some of them represent exceptional events, outstanding results that ended on the cover of scientific journals. Others were born from everyday research. All of them show a landscape that is being unraveled by scientists, scenery that is very different from the one we can see in the media, largely obtained through computer graphics and “artistic” interpretations, when not directly borrowed from science fiction.

Scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) uses nanoscale metal tips to scan a surface. Here, a standard tip has been modified and sharpened to increase its precision. The tip in the middle of this structure measures a few tens of nanometers. (Image: G.C. Gazzadi, S3 (INFM-CNR), Modena; P.Gucciardi, CNR-IPCF, Messina. Artwork: Lucia Covi)

Developing new instruments to be able to “see” at the nanoscale is a research field in itself. Shown here is the tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM), one of the foremost tools for imaging, measuring and manipulating matter at the nanoscale. Here, a platinum electrode measuring one hundredth of a nanometer has been deposited on the tip of this pyramid shaped AFM tip via focused ion beam (FIB) deposition. (Image: C. Menozzi, G.C. Gazzadi, S3 (INFM-CNR), Modena. Artwork: Lucia Covi)

Top view of a hole carved in a polyethylene surface. During a series of experiments the use of a FIB has proven to be very versatile and capable of carving various materials, including plastic. (Image: G.C. Gazzadi, S3 (INFM-CNR), Modena. Artwork: Lucia Covi)

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of quantum dots fabricated through electron beam lithography and subsequent dry-chemical etching on a quasi bidimensional layer (GaAl heterostructure). These structures are used to study the behavior of electrons, which are confined into tiny spaces – approximate. 10 electrons per dot. The diameter of each quantum dot is 200 nm (which means that a billion of these structure easily fit on the tip of your finger). (Image: C.P. Garcia, V. Pellegrini , NEST (INFM), Pisa. Artwork: Lucia Covi)

SEM image of a micron sized trench (10 x 20 x14 µm3) in a Cu/SiO2/Si multilayer, obtained through FIB milling. The precision of this technique allows the visualization of ultrathin (tens of nanometers) layers. (Image: G.C.Gazzadi, S.Frabboni, S3 (INFM-CNR), Modena. Artwork: Lucia Covi)

SEM image of a work sample on a magnesium oxide surface using FIB. The diameter of the hole measures approximate. 4 µm. (Image: G.C. Gazzadi, A. Spessot, S3 (INFM-CNR), Modena. Artwork: Lucia Covi)

Tiny spaces have formed inside titanium dioxide nanocrystals, as shown in this SEM image. The square structure of these inside spaces, which measure between 20 nm and 40 nm, is due to the crystalline structure of the material. (Image: L. Nasi, IMEM (CNR), Parma. Artwork: Lucia Covi)

Nano Teddybear, Garden of Eden and other spectacular nanotechnology images

(Nanowerk News) At the 2008 MRS Fall Meeting last December in Boston, MA, and the Spring Meeting this April this year in San Francisco, CA, the Materials Research Society conducted the sixth and seventh installments of their popular “Science as Art” competition. Here are some of the amazing images from the fields of nanotechnology that won prizes:

Nano Teddy Bear The scanning electron microscopic image (taken using a FESEM LEO 1530) shows the ZnO nanostructures on an indium oxide coated glass substrate deposited at 70oC by using a facile electrochemical deposition technique. A potentio-/galvanostat electrochemical workstation (CH Instruments 660A) was used to deposit the ZnO nanostructures by amperometry potentiostatically at -1.1 V (relative to the Ag/AgCl reference electrode) and a spiral platinum wire served as working electrode. An aqueous zinc nitrate [Zn(NO3)2.6H2O] solution was used as an electrolyte to prepare these ZnO nanostructures. (Image: Helia Jalili, University of Waterloo)

Carbon NanoEden Garden of Carbon NanoEden (Image: M. de Volder, S. Tawfick, A.J. Hart, University of Michigan)

Nano Spaghetti and Meatballs Colorized and overlaid scanning electron microscope images of Spaghetti and Meatballs made out of Au and Si. The ‘spaghetti’ is a collection of electrodeposited Au nanowires, 100 nm in diameter, that have released from the substrate and bundled together (Thomas Cornelius – GSI Darmstadt). The ‘meatballs’ are Si nanoparticles, ~1.5 um in diameter, with Au nanocrystals on the surface that were grown on carbon-coated substrates using ultra-high vacuum molecular beam epitaxy (Gunther Richter – MPI Stuttgart). These images highlight some of the many varied structures that can be formed at the nanoscale. (Image: Blythe G. Clark and Dan Gianola)

Nanoflower The crystalline wurtzite indium nitride (InN) nanoflower was synthesized via molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) processes, using pure indium and a high efficient nitrogen source, hydrazoic acid (HN3). (Image: PaiChun Wei, Center for Condensed Matter Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan)

The nano-grip This is an SEM image (color enhanced by Photoshop) of high aspect ratio 250nm thick epoxy bristles that have self assembled and trapped a 2.5 micron diameter PS sphere. (Image: Boaz Pokroy, Harvard University)

Modern Stonehenge Colorized SEM image of silicon nanopillar formation created by Gallium implantation and DRIE-etching. (Image: Nikolai Chekurov)

 

We have a collection of amazing nanotechnology images in our Introduction section.

Source: MRS

Mission possible: This device will self-destruct when heated

(Nanowerk News) Where do electronics go when they die? Most devices are laid to eternal rest in landfills. But what if they just dissolved away, or broke down to their molecular components so that the material could be recycled?

University of Illinois researchers have developed heat-triggered self-destructing electronic devices, a step toward greatly reducing electronic waste and boosting sustainability in device manufacturing. They also developed a radio-controlled trigger that could remotely activate self-destruction on demand.

The researchers, led by aerospace engineering professor Scott R. White, published their work in the journal Advanced Materials (“Thermally Triggered Degradation of Transient Electronic Devices”).

A device is remotely triggered to self-destruct. A radio-frequency signal turns on a heating element at the center of the device. The circuits dissolve completely. (Image: Scott White, University of Illinois)

“We have demonstrated electronics that are there when you need them and gone when you don’t need them anymore,” White said. “This is a way of creating sustainability in the materials that are used in modern-day electronics. This was our first attempt to use an environmental stimulus to trigger destruction.”

White’s group teamed up with John A. Rogers, a Swanlund chair in materials science and engineering and director of the Frederick Seitz Materials Laboratory at Illinois. Rogers’ group pioneered transient devices that dissolve in water, with applications for biomedical implants. Together, the two multi-disciplinary research groups have tackled the problem of using other triggers to break down devices, including ultraviolet light, heat and mechanical stress. The goal is to find ways to disintegrate the devices so that manufacturers can recycle costly materials from used or obsolete devices or so that the devices could break down in a landfill.

The heat-triggered devices use magnesium circuits printed on very thin, flexible materials. The researchers trap microscopic droplets of a weak acid in wax, and coat the devices with the wax. When the devices are heated, the wax melts, releasing the acid. The acid dissolves the device quickly and completely.

To remotely trigger the reaction, researchers embedded a radio-frequency receiver and an inductive heating coil in the device. The user can send a signal to cause the coil to heat up, which melts the wax and dissolves the device.

Watch a video of the researchers demonstrating and explaining the devices:

“This work demonstrates the extent to which clever chemistries can qualitatively expand the breadth of mechanisms in transience, and therefore the range of potential applications,” Rogers said.

The researchers can control how fast the device degrades by tuning the thickness of the wax, the concentration of the acid, and the temperature. They can design a device to self-destruct within 20 seconds to a couple of minutes after heat is applied.

The devices also can degrade in steps by encasing different parts in waxes with different melting temperatures. This gives more precise control over which parts of a device are operative, creating possibilities for sophisticated devices that can sense something in the environment and respond to it.

White’s group has long been concerned with device sustainability and has pioneered methods of self-healing to extend the life of materials.

“We took our ideas in terms of materials regeneration and flipped it 180 degrees,” White said. “If you can’t keep using something, whether it’s obsolete or just doesn’t work anymore, we’d like to be able to bring it back to the building blocks of the material so you can recycle them when you’re done, or if you can’t recycle it, have it dissolve away and not sit around in landfills.”

Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 

 

 

 

 

via Nano orchard and other amazing nanotechnology images.