NanoPhysics

The nanophysics is halfway between the size scales of quantum mechanics and macroscopic physics governed by the laws of Newton and Einstein. The correct definition of nanophysics is the physics of structures and artefacts with dimensions in the nanometer range or of phenomena occurring in nanoseconds.

Modern physical methods whose fundamental are developed in physics laboratories have become critically important in nanoscience. Nanophysics brings together multiple disciplines, using theoretical and experimental methods to determine the physical properties of materials in the nanoscale size range. Interesting properties include the structural, electronic, optical, and thermal behavior of nanomaterials; electrical and thermal conductivity; the forces between nanoscale objects; and the transition between classical and quantum behavior. Nanophysics has now become
an independent branch of physics, simultaneously expanding into many new areas and playing a vital role in fields that were once the domain of engineering, chemical, or life sciences.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology are all about relating and exploiting phenomena for materials having one, two or three dimensions reduced to the nanoscale. Breakthroughs in nanotechnology require a firm grounding in the principles of nanophysics. It is intended to fulfill a crucial purpose.
Nanophysics aims to connect scientists with disparate interests to begin interdisciplinary projects and incorporate the theory and methodology of other fields into their work.

Their evolution may be related to three exciting happenings that took place in a short span from the early to mid-1980s with the award of Nobel prizes to each of them.

These were:

1. the discovery quantum Hall effect in a two-dimensional electron gas
2. the invention of scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM)
3. the discovery of fullerene as the new form of carbon.

The latter two, within a few years, further led to the remarkable invention of the atomic force microscope (AFM) and, in the early 1990s the extraordinary discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNT), which soon provided the launch pad for the present-day nanotechnology.

The STM and AFM have emerged as the most powerful tools to examine, control and manipulate matter at the atomic, molecular and macromolecular scales and these functionalities constitute the mainstay of 2 nanotechnology. Interestingly, this exciting possibility of nanolevel tailoring of materials was envisioned way back in 1959 by Richard Feynman in his lecture, “There’s plenty of room at the bottom”.