Today, Agilent begins an applications section of the nanotechnology website.  The new section is a reference of nanotechnology applications showing typical instruments being used in research projects.   Each example gives a brief description of the project, the instruments used, the measurements made, and the device or structure being studied.  It also cites the name of the article, the publication, and the authors if you want to read more about this specific application.  It is divided into chemical, electronics, life sciences, materials, and optical categories for easier reference. 

To see the applications section, go to www.agilent.com/find/nano and click on the Application Examples found on the left side navigation bar under Resources.

 Let me highlight a few of the applications available this week.  If you are interested in carbon nanotubes, check out the chemical section to see how a gas chromatograph is used as a nanotube filter.  For those in electronics, this week’s applications include optical amplifiers tested with an oscilloscope and transistors tested with a semiconductor parameter analyzer.  In life science, genes are being identified with a bioanlyzer.  In in the optical section quantum dots being used as infared photodectors are tested using a semiconductor analyzer to accurately plot their current/voltage (I-V) characteristics.  In the nanomaterials section polymer micelles are characterized with a liquid chromatograph / mass spectrometer.  An LCR meter is used to plot the capacitance/voltage (C-V) curves. 

The applications section will have weekly additions, so visit it frequently.   My thanks to Jeff Harvey, a student at the University of Colorado-Boulder, who help us put together these research summaries.  If you have an application that you would like us to highlight- reply to this blog. 

The Nobel Prize for 2007 goes to Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg for giant magnetoresistance (GMR).  The technology allows one to read very small magnetic differences stored on computer hard drives and convert it to electric current.  It enables hard drive manufacturers to store large amounts of data in a small space.  GMR is a great example of nanoscale measurements enabling breakthroughs in future commercial products. 

 Go to http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2007/press.html to read the full report.