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June 22, 2007
The Science of Small Takes a Big Computer
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With the help of Lonestar, a supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, computational physicist James Chelikowsky is advancing the scientific understanding of nanostructures, including quantum dots, which have novel properties with countless potential applications in many industries.
Scientists and engineers are convinced that the fledgling, interdisciplinary field of nanoscience, the science of very small structures -- those between 1 and 100 nanometers in diameter or length -- will drive the next generation of technological advancements. Just how small is a nanometer? One nanometer is one-billionth of a meter -- that is 1 X 10-9 meters or 1/1,000,000,000 of a meter! For perspective, consider that the width of a human hair is approximately 80,000 nanometers, and a DNA molecule is about 2.5 nanometers wide.
By all accounts, nanoscience is one of the hottest areas in science and technology today. In fact, scientists from many fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, information technology, metrology (the science of measurement), and others, have turned to investigating the properties of nanostructures. Likewise, engineers are enthusiastic about the possible applications of nanotechnology to a wide array of industries, including energy, medicine, electronics, computing, security, and materials.
All this attention and enthusiasm stems from the discovery that the structure, and electrical and optical properties, of many materials at the nanoscale differ in very fundamental ways from the macroscopic or "bulk" material. Unique phenomena or "emergent" properties often appear in materials at the nanoscale and these properties have many potential and novel applications in the real world.
Although the applied use of nanoscience is limited, several industries are currently using nanotechnology. For example, nanoscale products are now used in magnetic recording tapes, sunscreens, automotive catalyst supports, markers for biological imaging, electroconductive coatings, optical fibers, and chemical-mechanical polishing. In addition, medical researchers are working at the nanoscale to develop new drug delivery methods, cancer-detection methods, and pharmaceuticals. Other promising nanotechnologies are being developed that can create artificial bone, antibodies, red blood cells, and nerve cells. The National Institutes of Health projects that many of these nanotechnologies, and more, will yield medical benefits in as little as 10 years.
However, before many of these real world applications can become reality, scientists like James Chelikowsky at The University of Texas at Austin must first uncover the properties that govern the behavior of these tiny structures -- which today, are still largely unknown.
Meet Dr. James Chelikowsky
James Chelikowsky is the W.A. "Tex" Moncrief Jr. Chair in Computational Materials in the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, and is a leading researcher in the computational physics of nanostructures.
He and his research group do not work with the actual nanostructures; instead, they use complex mathematical calculations and models to simulate the properties of real or hypothetical nanostructures, using high performance computers. Specifically, they employ advanced computational methods to understand the structural and electronic properties of materials in the nano-regime, such as atomic clusters, nanowires, and nanocrystals.
At such small scales, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to make measurements of the physical properties of materials, particularly structural properties. "Very often, the properties of nanostructures can be calculated mathematically better than they can be measured experimentally in the laboratory," Chelikowsky said. The field that encompasses the study of materials using computers is called "computational materials science." This field is relatively new, and provides insights into many physical phenomena that are too complex for analytical or experimental methods.
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