Nanotransducers

In this area nanoscale systems are being developed and studied that transduce mechanical, optical, magnetic and chemical signals into input and output ports of information processing units, thereby acting as sensors and actuators. Such nanotransducers promise greatly enhanced sensitivity and offer the possibility to be used inside other inorganic or organic nanoscale systems, from which they can extract information or to which they can transmit signals. Possible applications include ultrasensitive sensing devices, e.g. able to detect the binding of individual molecules, as well as artificial actuators acting down to the molecular scale. Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) fabricated out of layered semiconductors or carbon nanotubes will be investigated for nonlinear and quantum phenomena and serve as transducers to other quantum systems such as atomic Bose Einstein condensates or quantized magnetic moments. In order to interface the (bio-)chemical world to information processing nanosystems it is of particular interest to develop hybrid nanotransducers consisting of a combination of preferably single molecule transduction units with inorganic or organic nanosystems that are able to process information. In pursuit of this goal the transduction properties of individual carbon nanotubes and organic molecular units to semiconductor and molecular electronic circuits and vice versa will be explored.

The current and planned research is likely to have a strong impact on both fundamental exploratory science as well as applied research. The CeNS spin-off companies Nanotools and Attocube, which are internationally leading in their respective field, bear witness on the transformation of fundamental research efforts in the area of nanotransducers into successful commercial products.