Imagine yourself nano-sized, standing on the edge of a soon-to-be computer chip. Down shoots a beam of electrons, carving precise topography that is then etched the depth of the Grand Canyon into the chip. From the perspective of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, this improved form of etching could open the door to new technologies. Argonne nanoscientist Seth Darling and colleagues at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials and Energy Systems Division say it has the potential to revolutionize how patterns are transferred onto different materials, paving a new approach for the next generation of energy, electronics and memory technologies.
