TU Wien Advances Nano Technology Sensors

Researchers at TU Wien record the highest nano technology precision in implementing quantum sensing towards atomic force microscopy.

Scientists of the TU Wien have made a giant breakthrough in nano technology that will lead to a visualization of nano mechanical systems with a high precision that can be used in accurate ultra-high-resolution atomic force microscopes in the future. Another world record for the team was the development of a parallel-plate capacitor with a gap of only 32 nanometers, which was a huge advance in the miniaturization of sensors.

The success is of record proportions. The study is one of a series of nano technology solutions by the scientists at TU Wien that would make quantum sensing equipment simpler and more powerful. The researchers make use of electrical and mechanical oscillations instead of weak optical readout mechanisms since the former are more readily incorporated within small and portable instruments.

The new design has a capacitor size that consists of a fixed electrode on a movable aluminum membrane. It has these vibrations being coupled to an electrical resonant circuit, allowing measurements of very sensitive noise performance only limited by the laws of quantum physics. This is making the nano technology platform a powerful substitute for conventional optical ways employed in atomic force microscopy.

Mechanical systems carried on a chip were also demonstrated by the team, which do not require electrical circuits and ultra-low temperatures. Notably, these systems work efficiently at room temperature, which overcomes a major constraint of many of the quantum sensing experiments to date.

Having been published in Advanced Materials Technologies, the study further illuminates the possibility of using tradeoff-free, high-resolution quantum measurement using advanced nano technology, which has facilitated a new era of understanding at the nano scale.