Nanotechnology: etch a circuit sketch


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_Science_ 323, 1026–1030 (2009) The difficulty in designing nanoscale circuit boards lies in keeping electrons from leaving the conducting material through which they flow. With this in


mind, Jeremy Levy of the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania and his colleagues have devised 2-nanometre-wide circuits that confine electrons to the two dimensions of the chip's


'wiring' by trapping a gas of them at the interface of polar and nonpolar metal oxides. Their circuits are made using a conducting atomic force microscope tip with positive voltage


on the polar oxide, which changes the electronic properties of the oxide. Passing a tip with a negative voltage back over the circuits erases them. These processes can be repeated hundreds


of times. The authors demonstrated the concept by building electronic components such as field-effect transistors. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE


THIS ARTICLE Nanotechnology: Etch a circuit sketch. _Nature_ 457, 1061 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/4571061a Download citation * Published: 25 February 2009 * Issue Date: 26 February 2009


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