Single Molecule as source of light..

Nanotubes can be microns long, but are only 1.4 nanometer in diameter, inviting the mathematical approximation of one-dimensionality.
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I'll admit I don't have a handle on these dimensions. Is this significantly more of a thickness-to-length ratio than say... a cable stretching acoss the entire Atlantic?

-Chris
 
1 micron/1 nanometer = 1000

I am guessing that the cord on a vacuum cleaner is a better relfection of length/diamter ratio.

Walt
 
"Nanotubes can be microns long, but are only 1.4 nanometer in diameter, inviting the mathematical approximation of one-dimensionality."

If 1.4 nanometers is a mathematical approximation of one-dimensionality, what is one-dimensionality? Zero nanometer width?

My brain hurts.

As for the technology, its amazing. That's as small as you can get a wire. We've done it. After that, I guess you can throw Moore's law out the window?

I have to go get high now. :)
 
Is this the item that is smaller than a fibre optic wire, and what ever this other wire was you could have more of in the same space of one fibre optic cable?

Or have I become confused with another item that I read or watched about earlier this week?
 
Hellcat said:
Is this the item that is smaller than a fibre optic wire, and what ever this other wire was you could have more of in the same space of one fibre optic cable?

Or have I become confused with another item that I read or watched about earlier this week?
Click to expand...


Well, it it considerably smaller than any fiber optic fiber, which average around 9 microns or about 5,000 times larger than the 'nanotube ' described here...
 
Quote from the article:
In a nutshell, IBM discovered that simultaneous injection of electrons into one end, and holes into the other end, of a carbon nanotube causes it to emit light at the 1.5 micron wavelength.

How does one inject holes? Does one fill a syringe with a solution of holes and stick the needle into the nanatube and depress the plunger?
 
A one dimensional approximation just means that out of the three dimensions an object has, only one of them is large compared to the scale of the effect of interest. A difference of a 1000 to one is pretty significant. It is just an approximation, after all.

A garden hose is a good approximation of a one-dimensional object if the phenomenon of water waves is what you're interested in.

Since visible light has wavelengths on the order of a few hundred nm, a 1nm diameter tube is indeed effectively one dimensional.
 
"Wow "nanotubes is there anything thay can't do"?"

Well, they can't draw (or even recognize) a perfect circle, for starters...
 
Whee

What I'm waiting for is nanobots that respond to my will. Also, something that'll let me live a few thousand years.


Didn't I hear something about nanotubes being used to build a possible "Space elevator"?
 
lyghtningbyrd said:
"Nanotubes can be microns long, but are only 1.4 nanometer in diameter, inviting the mathematical approximation of one-dimensionality."

If 1.4 nanometers is a mathematical approximation of one-dimensionality, what is one-dimensionality? Zero nanometer width?
Click to expand...
Yes. A line has no width. So every time you draw a line on a piece of paper, you aren't actually drawing a line, you're just drawing a skinny rectangle.
 
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