Electronic nanocomponent self assembles

Experts from Grenoble and Strasbourg, along with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology's Institute of Nanotechnology based the research on the way green leaves grow through a self organisation process without impetus from subordinate mechanisms. The team applied synthetic adhesives to magnetic molecules in such a way that the latter docked on to the proper positions on a nanotube without any intervention. Unlike conventional electronic components, the new component doesn't consist of materials such as metals, alloys or oxides, but entirely of soft materials such as carbon nanotubes and molecules. The only magnetic metal atom used in the device is Terbium, which is embedded in the organic material and has a sensitive reaction to external magnetic fields. Information as to how the atom aligns along such magnetic fields then passed on to the current flowing through the nanotube. The researchers succeeded in electrically reading out the magnetism in the environment of the nanocomponent. The possibility of addressing electrically single magnetic molecules opens a completely new world to spintronics, where memory, logic and possibly quantum logic may be integrated. The nanoswitch was also developed by a European team of scientists from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Grenoble and Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux at the University of Strasbourg.