Researchers at the Georgia
Institute of Technology have ‘painted’ the Mona Lisa on a substrate surface
approximately 30 microns in width – or one-third the width of a human hair. The
team’s creation, the ‘Mini Lisa’, demonstrates a technique that could
potentially be used to achieve nanomanufacturing of devices because the team
was able to vary the surface concentration of molecules on such short-length
scales. The image was created with an atomic force microscope and a process
called ThermoChemical NanoLithography (TCNL).
Going pixel by pixel, researchers
positioned a heated cantilever at the substrate surface to create a series of
confined nanoscale chemical reactions. By varying only the heat at each
location, researchers controlled the number of new molecules that were created.
The greater the heat, the greater the local concentration. More heat produced
the lighter shades of gray, as seen on the Mini Lisa’s forehead and hands. Less
heat produced the darker shades in her dress and hair seen when the molecular
canvas is visualized using fluorescent dye. Each pixel is spaced by 125
nanometers.
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