Current approaches for modulation of the nanoscale interface in the regulation of cell behavior

Regulation of cell behavior in response to nanoscale features has been the focus of much research in recent years and the successful generation of nanoscale features capable of mimicking the natural nanoscale interface has been of great interest in the field of biomaterials research. In this review, we discuss relevant nanofabrication techniques and how they are combined with bioengineering applications to mimic the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) and create valuable nanoscale interfaces

Nanoscale ear drum: Graphene based nanoscale sensors

The difficulty in determining the mass of a sample increases as its size diminishes. At the nanoscale, there are no direct methods for resolving the mass of single molecules or nanoparticles and so more sophisticated approaches based on electromechanical phenomena are required. More importantly, one demands that such nanoelectromechanical techniques could provide not only information about the mass of the target molecules but also about their geometrical properties. In this sense, we report a theoretical study that illustrates in detail how graphene membranes can operate as nanoelectromechanical mass-sensor devices. Wide graphene sheets were exposed to different types and amounts of molecules and molecular dynamic simulations were employed to treat these doping processes statistically. We demonstrate that the mass variation effect and information about the graphene-molecule interactions can be inferred through dynamical response functions. Our results confirm the potential use of graphene as mass detector devices with remarkable precision in estimating variations in mass at molecular scale and other physical properties of the dopants

Nanoscale magnetophotonics

This Perspective surveys the state-of-the-art and future prospects of science and technology employing the nanoconfined light (nanophotonics and nanoplasmonics) in combination with magnetism. We denote this field broadly as nanoscale magnetophotonics. We include a general introduction to the field and describe the emerging magneto-optical effects in magnetoplasmonic and magnetophotonic nanostructures supporting localized and propagating plasmons. Special attention is given to magnetoplasmonic crystals with transverse magnetization and the associated nanophotonic non-reciprocal effects, and to magneto-optical effects in periodic arrays of nanostructures. We give also an overview of the applications of these systems in biological and chemical sensing, as well as in light polarization and phase control. We further review the area of nonlinear magnetophotonics, the semiconductor spin-plasmonics, and the general principles and applications of opto-magnetism and nano-optical ultrafast control of magnetism and spintronics

Nanoscale capacitance: a classical charge-dipole approximation

Modeling nanoscale capacitance presents particular challenge because of dynamic contribution from electrodes, which can usually be neglected in modeling macroscopic capacitance and nanoscale conductance. We present a model to calculate capacitances of nano-gap configurations and define effective capacitances of nanoscale structures. The model is implemented by using a classical atomic charge-dipole approximation and applied to calculate capacitance of a carbon nanotube nano-gap and effective capacitance of a buckyball inside the nano-gap. Our results show that capacitance of the carbon nanotube nano-gap increases with length of electrodes which demonstrates the important roles played by the electrodes in dynamic properties of nanoscale circuits.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Dynamics at the nanoscale

However fascinating structures may be at the nanoscale, time-dependent behaviour at the nanoscale has far greater importance. Some of the dynamics is random, with fluctuations controlling rate processes and making thermal ratchets possible. Some of the dynamics causes the transfer of energy, of signals, or of charge. Such transfers are especially efficiently controlled in biological systems. Other dynamical processes occur when we wish to control the nanoscale, e.g., to avoid local failures of gate dielectrics, or to manipulate structures by electronic excitation, to use spin manipulation in quantum information processing. Our prime purpose is to make clear the enormous range and variety of time-dependent nanoscale phenomena. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Charge transport in nanoscale vertical organic semiconductor pillar devices

We report charge transport measurements in nanoscale vertical pillar structures incorporating ultrathin layers of the organic semiconductor poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT). P3HT layers with thickness down to 5 nm are gently top-contacted using wedging transfer, yielding highly reproducible, robust nanoscale junctions carrying high current densities (up to $10^6$ A/m$^2$). Current-voltage data modeling demonstrates excellent hole injection. This work opens up the pathway towards nanoscale, ultrashort-channel organic transistors for high-frequency and high-current-density operation.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

Polarization aspects of near-field radiation from nanoscale subwavelength apertures

It is demonstrated that a square nanoaperture can mediate polarized diffractionlimited radiation into nanoscale optical spots with the same polarization. A rectangular nanoaperture can convert linearly-polarized diffraction-limited radiation into circularly and elliptically-polarized nanoscale optical spots