Creating the tiniest structures on surfaces

Nanotechnology is regarded as the key technology of the 21st century, delivering the fundamental methods, which allow objects just a few hundred nanometers in size to be produced in any required shape. These objects find applications practically everywhere – be it for microprocessors and electrical circuits in computers, in the telecommunications industry, or in medicine and biotechnology – to name just a few. To encourage the development of new manufacturing processes the EU recently established the Marie Curie Training Network "ELENA" (low energy electron-driven chemistry for the advantage of emerging nanofabrication methods). Empa is one of the project partners, together with 13 universities, three research institutes and five industrial partners, drawn from a total of 13 countries.