Wednesday, 07 March, 2012

Nanotechnologie

Introducing plug-and-play nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS)

The measurement of very low concentrations of various agents plays an important role in medicine, pharmacology and food technology. So-called "nanomechanical resonators" - vibrating nanostrings - represent promising candidates for suitable detectors, because their oscillating motion is extremely sensitive to the binding of substances of interest. In recent years scientists have refined these techniques to the point where single atoms can now be detected. These analyses, however, have their shortcomings. They tend to be time-consuming, require expensive instrumentation and frequently operate only at temperatures near absolute zero. Recently, a group of physicists at the LMU developed a compact sensor architecture on the nanometer scale, which is easy to handle and works at room temperature. The group is led by Dr. Eva Weig, who is also a member of the Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM). The new work builds on their initial demonstration of an efficient electrical interface for nanomechanical resonators which was published in Nature in 2009. They now describe a fully integrated nanome-chanical sensor platform that permits robust and sensitive detection of tiny displacements.

Presseinformation der LMU (deutsch)
Presseinformation der Nanosystems Initiative Munich (deutsch)
Press information Nano Initiative Munich (english)
Publication "Microwave cavity-enhanced transduction for plug and play nanomechanics at room temperature"