New Carving Tool for Nanodevices

An Indian research team has devised a new method to produce uniform metallic coats on the surfaces of nanostructures. The method which utilizes scattered Ga ions to decompose organometallic molecules delivers metallic coats on nano-sized structures which are not accessible to the primary beam. The method can be used to provide electrical contacts on inaccessible regions of prototype nanodevices, such as ion batteries, electrophoresis cells, and cantilevers. The findings of the study have been published in the 18th February 2009 issue of Nanotechnology.