The nanometer age: Challenge and chance

Abstract

The new players in the emerging nano-world are individual, selected objects of the size of some 50 nm down to molecules and atoms. The new aspect of science and technology on the nanometer scale is that these objects are treated as individuals, not as ensemble members. To a great extent, this requires real-space methods. Local probe methods, such as scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and its derivatives, are therefore a key to the nano-world. Major challenges of the new nanometer world are to interface the macroscopic world to nano-individuals, to exploit the new possibilities which arise from nanometer dimensions, to establish new concepts for working with very large numbers of nano-individuals and large sets of control parameters; to create the basis for broad interdisciplinarity, and to prepare society for the tremendous changes anticipated in a nanometer world. © 1994 Società Italiana di Fisica.