Building with nanoparticles, from the bottom up: Researchers develop a technique for precisely arranging nanoscale particles on a surface, such as a silicon chip, that doesn't damage the material.

Researchers created a technique for precisely arranging nanoparticles onto surfaces in arrays with arbitrary shapes that does not cause damage to the material's surface. The scalable technique could help make higher-performance devices like lasers, LEDs, sensors, and actuators.