PHYC40480 Biophysics at the Nanoscale and Nanodevices

Academic Year 2022/2023

Much of today's nanoscale research is designed to reach a better understanding of how matter behaves on a small scale. The factors that govern larger systems do not necessarily apply at the nanoscale. Because nanomaterials have large surface areas relative to their volumes, phenomena like friction and sticking are more important than they are in larger systems.
Engineering at very small length scales will ultimately produce technologies that utilize materials with new and fundamentally unique properties. Devices at the nanoscale will address challenges in future technologies. This will include the fields of nanooptics and sub-diffraction limited imaging, plasmonics, optical molecular switches and quantum dots but also nanomedicine including anti-cancer treatments and diagnostic. There are two basic approaches for creating nanodevices (top-down approach and the bottom-up approach). The first approach involves e.g. lithography and etching materials into smaller components and has traditionally been used in making parts for computers and electronics. The bottom-up approach involves assembling structures atom-by-atom or molecule-by-molecule, and may prove useful in manufacturing devices used in medicine.
The course will cover a general introduction into the physics at the nanoscale (band structure, optical properties, electronics) and will additionally introduce imaging and spectroscopy techniques which are useful to characterise systems at the nanoscale.