Summary
Materials processing has reached such a fine degree of control that it is now possible to fabricate single objects using individual atoms as building blocks, a field often called nanotechnology. Although single atom manipulation is still a long way from being useful for technological or industrial applications, it is both possible and practical to obtain atomic scale control in materials processing if the control is restricted to just one dimension, in other words building materials using single layers just one atom thick as building blocks. There are several methods providing this degree of control and one of the most sophisticated ones is known as "atomic layer epitaxy" (ALE) which provides the possibility of fabricating conformal and nearly defect-free solids. ALE has a vast array of practical applications, for example in micro-electronics. However, greater understanding of the underlying processes and potential fabrication techniques is needed before commercial applications can be considered, and this Network has been set up to develop a co-ordinated approach linking existing research groups. go to website
Duration
Three years, from October 1998 to December 2001.
