LONDON: Scientists in Zurich have created the world’s smallest 3D map – of the world.
IBM’s perfectly formed ‘nano-world’, has now been accepted by the Guinness World Record organisation.
The map measures a miniscule 22 by 11 micrometers. Or, to put it in perspective, 1,000 maps would fit on just one grain of salt.
The map was ‘written’ on a polymer and is composed of 500,000 pixels, each measuring 20 nm2 and was created in just two minutes and 23 seconds.
A map that can only be seen through a microscope may seem as useful as a chocolate teapot, but the new technology behind it is set to open a whole new world in industry.
Existing nano techniques struggle to make structures smaller than 30 nanometers and are expensive to use.
But the new technique uses a nanoscale tip – 100,000 times smaller than a sharpened pencil – to cheaply create 2D and 3D patterns and structures as small as 15 nanometers.
The etching technique the machine uses is similar to how Egyptian’s chiseled away at stone to create drawings and hieroglyphics.
The technique opens new prospects for making nanosized electronics and objects in fields ranging from future chip technology to opto-electronics to medicine and life sciences.
The findings were published in Science and Advanced Materials.