Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Technology => Topic started by: jaiii on 05/05/2014 17:23:18

Title: Is it possible to cue a gap of 10nm in metal?
Post by: jaiii on 05/05/2014 17:23:18
Good day.

It is possible to cut a gap thickness of 1 nm, and 10 m depth, for example?

Thank you.

Goodbye.
Title: Re: Nano gaps
Post by: CliffordK on 05/05/2014 19:35:55
It may depend somewhat on the material.  Steel?

1nm = 10Å

This would put your gap on the scale of about 10 atoms, or say you had molecules such as Fe2O3, perhaps down to about 2 molecules. 

Visible light has a wavelength of about 380 to 750 nm, and could not be used to cut a large cut with a narrow gap.

This means that one would have to use either an X-Ray, or Gamma Ray laser, or perhaps an electron beam. 

It may be technically possible to design a system to make cuts in thin materials on a sub-10 nm scale.  However, cutting or drilling a thick piece of material on a nm scale would be extremely difficult, if not impossible. 

Of course you could fracture some materials, then reassemble with a narrow gap, or laying two pieces of finely ground/polished material such as glass together, one may achieve a very narrow gap.
Title: Re: Is it possible to cue a gap of 10nm in metal?
Post by: Bored chemist on 08/05/2014 20:01:00
A ten metre depth makes that task impossible.
You might just be able to make something that looked a bit like a 10 nm gap in something macroscopic using langmuir blodgett films.
What are you hoping to achieve?
Title: Re: Is it possible to cue a gap of 10nm in metal?
Post by: jaiii on 19/08/2015 16:25:29
I try create object fo Casimir effect.

gap 10-100 nm and weight 1c-1m