British researchers create the world's smallest violin
To test a new nanolithography system, researchers in England have created a micrometer-sized image of a violin.
(Image: Loughborough University)
Playing this instrument is likely to be difficult: British researchers have built a violin made of platinum in the micrometer range that can easily hide behind a human hair. According to them, it is the smallest violin in the world.
The instrument – or more precisely its image – is 35 micrometers long and 13 micrometers wide – for comparison: a human hair has a diameter of between 17 and 180 micrometers. Accordingly, the violin can only be seen under a microscope. With this project, the team at Loughborough University in central England wants to demonstrate the performance of the university's new nanolithography system. This will be used to produce chips, for example.
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“Our nanolithography system allows us to study materials in different ways – with light, magnetism, or electricity – and observe their reactions to it,” said project leader Kelly Morrison. “Once we understand how materials behave, we can use that knowledge to develop new technologies, whether it's to improve computing power or to find new ways to generate energy.”
The image of the violin was created on a chip that is coated with two layers of gel-like photoresist. The shape of the violin is then burned into these layers.
Technology from Heidelberg
This is done by the NanoFrazor. The nano-sculpting machine developed by the German company Heidelberg Instruments uses thermal scanning probe lithography, a technique in which a heated, needle-like tip creates patterns on a nanoscale.
The probe tip vaporizes the resist there, drawing the lines of the violin – or later for conductive tracks or similar structures. The photoresist is then exposed to light and thus solidified. The tracks burned into the resist are then filled with platinum. In the final step, the remaining material is rinsed away with acetone so that the finished violin becomes visible.
According to the researchers, it only took around three hours to create the image of the violin. However, several months of preparation were necessary beforehand. “Making the world's smallest violin may look like a fun project, but our findings have laid the foundation for the research we are now conducting,” said Morrison. The first two research projects using the nanolithography system are already underway.
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The team chose the violin as a motif as a pop culture reference to the phrase: “Can you hear the world's smallest violin playing just for you?” – “Can you hear the world's smallest violin playing just for you?” The sentence, which is often accompanied by a gesture of thumb and index finger symbolizing the playing of the violin, makes fun of exaggerated complaints or reactions. It was made famous in the 1970s by the television series M*A*S*H and is now being used again.
(wpl)
