Science Gallery goes Nano

Our good friends at CRANN (Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices) have been playing around with the Science Gallery logo and using a Focused Ion Beam (FIB) they've recreated the logo on a flat diamond surface.

How's it done? The FIB emits Ga+ ions from a liquid metal Gallium well and accelerates them at 30, 000 volts towards a sample. Given their weight, these ions have enough energy to pulverize the atoms on the samples surface that they hit evaporating them into the vacuum. In plain speak: the FIB digs nano-holes into a surface. It's so small that you can only see this with a scanning electron microscope as one nanometer is 10 ^-9 meter, or a millionth of a millimeter. Too small for us to use this logo in conventional advertising, but pretty interesting nonetheless!!

The FIB is one tool most commonly used for nano-fabrication. Nanofabrication is the design and manufacture of devices with dimensions measured in nanometers, used in computer engineering, medical, military and aerospace industries.

The Ion beam can be focused to a spot several nanometers across and can be rastered in any pattern. The lower areas that have been exposed to the patterning demonstrate how the Focused Ion Beam removes carbon atoms from the diamond surface.

For more information on the FIB or nanotechnology, you can email Warren or check out the CRANN website.