Foundations of Nanoscience 2004 Self-Assembled Architectures and Devices. Snowbird Cliff Lodge ~ Snowbird, Utah. April 21-23, 2004.
by John Reif (Editor, Program Chair)
This Proceedings provides papers presented by leading researchers at the
first Conference on Foundations of Nanoscience: Self-Assembled Architectures
and Devices. This Conference addresses a missing pillar in the emerging
discipline of Nanoscience, namely an understanding of self-assembly methods
for forming complex structured components. This Conference had a major
impact on the emerging field of Nanoscience and self-assembly by getting
leading researchers working in self-assembly in the same place for the first
time.
The construction of molecular scale structures at the scale of the 1 - 100
nanometer range is one of the key challenges facing science and technology
in the twenty-first century. This challenge is at the core of an emerging
discipline of Nanoscience, which is at a critical stage of development.
There have been some notable successes in the construction of individual
molecular components (e.g., carbon nanotubes, and various molecular
electronic devices), and the individual manipulation of molecules by probing
devices. However, a key deficiency is the lack of methods for constructing
complex devices out of large numbers of these molecular components. We need
methods to help us hold, shape, and assemble various molecular components
into complex machines and systems.
Top-down methods for construction of nanostructures, such as e-beam
lithography, have inherent limitations in scale. Bottom-up methods appear
to have no such scale limitations. Self-assembly is a bottom-up method of
construction where substructures are spontaneously self-ordered into
superstructures driven by the selective affinity of the substructures. While
top-down methods are well understood, and widely used in engineering and
manufacturing processes, self-assembly is a much less well-understood
construction process. Chemists have for many decades used self-assembly
methods (for example, for the self-assembly of lipid or polymer layers), but
they conventionally result in structures with limited complexity, and are
not readily programmable. However the cell is self-assembled, and contains
many complex structured components.
For a variety of historical reasons, self-assembly processes and
experiments have not been examined by science to the degree that is now
needed by Nanoscience. This Conference provided a synergism for a community
of scholars working in self-assembly related areas who would otherwise not
have contact with each other.
