Researchers uncover the surprising benefits of imperfections in nanostructures, challenging the notion of perfection in cutting-edge technologies.
Embracing Imperfections
As engineers and, we’ve been striving for perfection since the dawn of time…. or at least, technological advancements. The new paper demonstrates by a team of researchers from University of Twente and Amsterdam e-Science Center.
The team compared the transmission of light through an ideal 2D model of a nanostructure with that of an actual 3D nanostructure. These nano structures are a fundamental part of much of the technology that powers our everyday lives, from smart phones to solar panels. What they found was, in contrast to the idealised model, that the real nanostructure had a pronounced light confinement which was entirely missing from the utopian design.
This comes to dispute the general belief that perfection is the final answer within nanotechnology. Even if all equipment works perfectly, entropy and chaos ensure that exact copies of sequences cannot be produced, making the devices less reliable. In other words, the twist that occurs as a result of the imperfections inherent in nanofabrication might actually be what enables completely new and unprecedented functionality.
Unraveling the Mysteries of Nanostructures
This research of the Twente-Amsterdam team is not just interesting from a fundamental perspective, it may also lead to new device modalities.
In the context of the study, “The actual light distribution has this funky pattern where it’s prevented from coming out on one side to the right as was intended,” said another co-author Willem Vos. The extreme and confined light could also be employed for entirely new purposes, such as an optical switch or a sensor.
This finding contests the view that nanoscale defects are merely a source of frustration and should be avoided or removed. Rather than exceptions, however, the researchers posit that these flaws could offer opportunities to enable novel functions.
The team adopted an innovative strategy where they implement the real 3D nanostructure as a blueprint for their optical study and compare the real nanostructure directly to an idealized or “utopian” model. This can help to better appreciate the characteristic and promise of these “imperfect” nanostructures.
Conclusion
These results not only question the old dogma of perfection in nanotechnology, but also provide new directions to exploit. So perhaps it is time to embrace the imperfections in nanostructures for access to a whole new area of unexpected functionalities and applications that could change the way we use technology on a daily basis. As the domain of nanotechnology develops, one can only infer that the promise of perfection may lead not out of the darkness and into the light but rather grasp on to serendipty and imperfection.
