Nanotech rips off Etch-A-Sketch

A new discovery by Pitt scientists may change the future of technology and computer science -… A new discovery by Pitt scientists may change the future of technology and computer science – and it works kind of like an Etch-A-Sketch toy.

Pitt professor Jeremy Levy, a specialist in quantum computation, worked with German scientists and Pitt graduate student Cheng Cen to create a device that allows materials that normally don’t conduct electricity to do just that.

Levy said that current technology requires two different materials used in computers – magnetic materials for storage and silicon materials for transistors. The new device introduces a possibility of using oxide materials for both purposes.

He said that the system works like an Etch-A-Sketch, which has a piece of glass covering aluminum powder. By moving the toy’s knobs, which work like an x-and-y graph, a needle moves to scratch the powder off of the glass and create an image.

“It’s surprisingly similar,” Levy said of his project.

The team used two different oxide materials in the device. They created a space between them with attached electrodes and then used a sharp needle to apply voltage, which changed the properties of the material from non-conducting to conducting.

The researchers needed an atomic force microscope to see the materials, which were measured by nanometers. One nanometer is a billionth of a meter – only a few atoms thick.

The researchers contained the materials in a five-by-five millimeter device.

Another important element of the discovery is that the wire created by the voltage in the materials can be reversed using a blue light, which cannot be accomplished in ordinary computer parts.

Levy said that more research was needed in order to confirm the reasons why the properties of the oxide materials could change.

But the team offered a theoretical explanation, which calculated that the electrical current removes a fraction of oxygen atoms from the surface of the top layer of material, allowing it to conduct electricity.

“It’s not technology yet,” Levy said. “It’s an idea. It could take years and years of development.”

He said that this discovery might lead to further research that, over time, will create products that replace silicon technology.

However, it is not yet clear whether this new finding could compete with such a massive industry.

Levy got the idea for the project when he met up with German scientists during summer 2006, when he traveled to Germany to attend conferences and see the World Cup soccer final.

“I needed something to do in between the conference and the World Cup,” Levy said.

Once he and Cen started the project, it took about a month to see evidence of the property change. But the team conducted further research for about a year.

“We are continuing to research in new directions, but that is not published,” Levy said.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, part of the U.S. Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation funded Levy and Cen’s research.

According to DARPA’s 2007 strategic plan, their mission is “radical innovation for national security.” The website of the National Science Foundation reports that the NSF funds about 20 percent of federally supported collegiate research.

A scientific journal called “Nature Materials” published Levy and Cen’s research findings online March 2.