Nanophysics

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Electrons in graphene at low energy obey a two-dimensional Dirac equation, closely analogous to that of neutrinos. As a result, quantum mechanical effects when the system is confined or subjected to potentials at the nanoscale may be quite different from what happens in conventional electronic systems. In this article, we review recent progress on two systems where this is indeed the case: quantum rings and graphene electrons in a superlattice potential. In the former case, we demonstrate that the spectrum reveals signatures of 'effective time-reversal symmetry breaking', in which the spectra are most naturally interpreted in terms of effective magnetic flux contained in the ring, even when no real flux is present...

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Lipids undergo self-assembly to form ordered nonlamellar, nanoperiodic arrays both in vitro and in vivo. While engineering of such membrane arrays for technical devices is envisaged, we know little about their cellular function. Do they represent building blocks of an inherent cellular nanotechnology? Prospects for answering this question could be improved if the nanophysical properties of the membrane arrays could be studied in the context of specific cellular functions. Therefore, we draw attention to exceptional complex membrane arrays found in the renal epithelial cell line PtK2 that could provide perfect conditions for both biophysical and cell functional studies...

Motivated by the growing interest in the nanophysics and the field of quantum thermodynamics we study an open quantum system consisting of two spatially separated two-level atoms (spins) coupled to a quantum oscillator (resonator field mode). There is no external driving. The spins of different energy splittings are each linked to a heat bath with different temperature. We find that the temperature gradient imposed on the system together with the oscillator operating as a kind of work reservoir makes this system act as a thermodynamic machine, in particular, as a heat engine (laser)...

Current criteria in Bionanotechnology based on software and sensor/actuator hardware of Artificial Intelligence for bioinspired nanostructured systems lack the nanophysical background and key mathematics to describe and mimick the biological hierarchies of nano-to-micro-integrated informational/energetic levels. It is argued that bionanoscale hardware/software undividable solidarity can be mimicked by artificial nanostructured systems featuring intra/interlevel information processing through the emerging organization principle of quantum holography, described by the Heisenberg group G and by harmonic analysis on G...

The interest of nucleation of protein crystals and aggregates (including oligomerization) spans from basic physics theory all the way to biophysics, nanophysics, clinical sciences, biotechnologies, food technologies and polymer-solvent interactions. Understanding nucleation within a theoretical framework capable of providing quantitative predictions and control of nucleation rates, or even the very occurrence of crystallization, is a long-sought goal of remarkable relevance to each of the above fields. A large amount of work has been aimed at such goal, but success has been so far rather limited...

The scanning tomography method is developed for electromagnetic sounding of a 3D structure of an inhomogeneous dielectric half-space. It is shown that known methods of physical diagnostics are suitable for this tomography with the depth of analysis from nanometers at optical frequencies up to several kilometers at ultralow frequencies. The areas of application include nanophysics, biological and medical diagnostics, subsurface remote sensing in geophysics and geology, etc. This approach is realized in the microwave scanning tomography of living tissues where a subwavelength resolution is achieved...

Nanophysics at electrochemical interfaces, probing the physical properties of nanostructures, requires laterally resolved in-situ spectroscopy, in particular voltage tunneling spectroscopy (VTS), which is at present not yet established. In-situ spectroscopy is required to achieve reliable and reproducible measurements of the intrinsic properties of nanostructures in an electrochemical environment, which are mainly determined in small nanostructures by surface atoms rather than bulk atoms. In contrast to tunneling spectroscopy in ultrahigh vacuum, tip and substrate double-layer capacitances as well as Faradaic currents play an important role in voltage tunneling spectroscopy at electrochemical interfaces...

Many systems in the realm of nanophysics from both the living and the inorganic world display slow relaxation kinetics of energy fluctuations. In this Letter we propose a general explanation for such a phenomenon, based on the effects of interactions with the solvent. Within a simple harmonic model of the system fluctuations, we demonstrate that the inhomogeneity of coupling to the solvent of the bulk and surface atoms suffices to generate a complex spectrum of decay rates. We show for myoglobin and for a metal nanocluster that the result is a complex, nonexponential relaxation dynamics...

Nanomaterials, nanostructures, nanostructured materials, nanoimprint, nanobiotechnology, nanophysics, nanochemistry, radical nanotechnology, nanosciences, nanooptics, nanoelectronics, nanorobotics, nanosoldiers, nanomedecine, nanoeconomy, nanobusiness, nanolawyer, nanoethics to name a few of the nanos. We need a clear definition of all these burgeoning fields for the sake of the grant attribution, for the sake of research program definition, and to avoid everyone being lost in so many nanos.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Small structures with dimensions in the nanometer regime play an important role within a lot of modern technological branches like, for example, genetics, chip fabrication, material science, medicine, or chemistry. While highly sophisticated characterization methods would be necessary to study such nanostructures, computational methods and models have made their entrance into the field of nanotechnology. The present work gives an overview of the problems connected with quantum mechanics, many-particle systems, and nanophysical models...