Inspired nanotechnologies Nanobeacons, nanopistons, nanorotors: researchers are full of imagination when it comes to inventing objects of molecular size that draw on cutting-edge technology down to the tiniest detail. Seeing a nanopendulum oscillate Illustration of the experimental set-up used CNRS researchers managed to observe the vibrations of a to observe the oscillation of a nanopendulum. nanopendulum by using the properties of the light emitted by a 50-nanometer diameter photon nanosource attached to its end. The scientists hope they can couple the motion of this nano-oscillator with the quantum properties of the light source, so as to place it in a quantum superposition of various vibrational states. The latter Ultra-fast nanorotors in a crystal could thus play the role of a quantum information bit that could A rigid rod of about one nanometer in length rooted in a crystal, simultaneously be in both the 0 and 1 states. with a helical molecule rotating around the rod: these are the rotors, obtained by self-assembly, developed by a French-US Nature Physics September 2011 team. The rotation frequency of the rotors, which is modulated according to their location on the host crystal, can reach 4.3 billion revolutions per second. These nanomachines could eventually find applications in electronics. Journal of the American Chemical Society April 2011 34 A year at CNRS 2011
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