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Nanotweezer is new tool to create advanced plasmonic technologies
A new type of "nanotweezer" capable of positioning tiny objects quickly and accurately and freezing them in place could enable improved nanoscale sensing methods and aid research to manufacture advanced technologies such as quantum computers and ultra-high-resolution displays.
The device, fabricated at Purdue University's Birck Nanotechnology Center, uses a cylindrical gold "nanoantenna" with a diameter of 320 nanometers, or about 1/300th the width of a human hair. The structures concentrate and absorb light, resulting in "plasmonic hotspots" and making it possible to manipulate nanometer-scale objects suspended in a fluid.
"The proposed approach enables the immediate implementation of a myriad of exciting applications," said Alexandra Boltasseva, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Findings are detailed in a paper appearing online in Nature Nanotechnology Monday (Nov. 2).
Plasmonic devices harness clouds of electrons called surface plasmons to manipulate and control light. Potential applications for the nanotweezer include improved-sensitivity nanoscale sensors and the study of synthetic and natural nanoobjects including viruses and proteins; creation of "nanoassemblies" for plasmonic materials that could enable a host of advanced technologies; ultra-resolution "optofluidic" displays; and plasmonic circuitry for quantum logic units.
The nanotweezer might be used to create devices containing nanodiamond particles or other nanoscale light-emitting structures that can be used to enhance the production of single photons, workhorses of quantum information processing, which could bring superior computers, cryptography and communications technologies.
Conventional computers use electrons to process information. However, the performance might be ramped up considerably by employing the unique quantum properties of electrons and photons, said Vladimir M. Shalaev, co-director of a new Purdue Quantum Center, scientific director of nanophotonics at the Birck Nanotechnology Center and a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering.
"The nanotweezer system has been shown to cause convection in fluid on-demand, resulting in micrometer-per-second nanoparticle transport by harnessing a single plasmonic nanoantenna, which until now has been thought to be impossible," said doctoral student Justus C. Ndukaife.
Previous research had shown that convection using a single plasmonic nanoantenna was too weak to induce such a strong convection, below 10 nanometers per second, which cannot result in a net transport of suspended particles.
However, the Purdue researchers have overcome this limitation, increasing the velocity of particle transport by 100 times by applying an alternating current electric field in conjunction with heating the plasmonic nanoantenna using a laser to induce a force far stronger than otherwise possible.
"The local electromagnetic field intensity is highly enhanced, over 200 times, at the plasmonic hotspot," Ndukaife said. "The interesting thing about this system is that not only can we trap particles but also do useful tasks because we have these hotspots. If I bring a particle to the hotspot then I can do measurements, and sensing is enhanced because it is in a hotspot."
The new hybrid nanotweezer combines a near-infrared laser light and an electric field, inducing an "electrothermoplasmonic flow."
"Then, once we turn off the electric field the laser holds the particles in place, so it can operate in two modes. First, the fast transport using alternating current, and then you turn off the electric field and it goes into the plasmonic tweezing mode," he said.
The Purdue researchers are the first to induce electrothermoplasmonic flow using plasmonic structures.
The system also makes it possible to create patterns to project images, potentially for displays with ultra-fine resolution.
The laser traps the particles, making it possible to precisely position them. The technique was demonstrated with polystyrene particles.
Source: http://phys.org/news/2015-11-nanotweezer-tool-advanced-plasmonic-technologies.html
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
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• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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