Paul S. Weiss, California NanoSystems Institute, UCLA Center for Quantum Science & Engineering, and Departments of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Bioengineering, and Materials Science & Engineering, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Abstract: Many interactions and processes in nature operate at low energy and with critical energy balance, enabling repeated cycling and highly efficient transport. Inspired by these processes, we try to understand them, and to replicate them in synthetic systems. The energies involved are well below those of visible photon energies; thus, we predominantly use tunneling spectroscopies and imaging to probe them. If we could replicate such systems in our devices, we could save most of the energy required to run them. If we could mimic biochemical cycling, we could develop efficient recycling at large scales rather than the extremely labor- and energy-intensive processes of today. We look for underlying principles and what we are currently missing in our understanding. Two of the areas we are exploring are spin conservation in chiral molecules and the roles of polarizability in biological, and now synthetic, systems. Taking this perspective has already led to novel discoveries and inventions, including thermal control with orders of magnitude improvements, in scale, speed, and effect. One of the key advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology has been our increasing ability to reach the limits of atomically precise structures. By having developed the “eyes” to see, to record spectra, and to measure function at the nanoscale, we have been able to fabricate structures with precision as well as to understand the important and intrinsic heterogeneity of function found in these assemblies. The physical, electronic, mechanical, thermal, and chemical connections that materials make to one another and to the outside world are critical. Just as the properties and applications of conventional semiconductor devices depend on these contacts, so do nanomaterials, many nanoscale measurements, and devices of the future.
