By Tejasvi:
We all know matter is made up of atoms and atoms constitute of electrons and the nucleus. Since these electrons are always in motion in materials called ‘semiconductors’, their properties are very important. Materials that fall in the IV A Group of the Periodic table are termed as semiconductors. There is a certain energy that is to be attained by the electrons to become free from the atom.
Electron movement is the one that causes current in a wire, or for that matter, in any conducting body. If we consider the power of electrons as compared to any other material particle, electron almost always wins the race of being the particle that is responsible for most phenomena in the atoms.
The fact that nanotechnology is the buzzword of today is because of these tiny tots ‘electrons’. It is no surprise if we notice nano-particles, which basically constitute atoms of various materials, in cancer therapy and other medical fields. This kind of integration of electronics with medicine is mostly a breakthrough that has been made possible by Nanotechnology. What we see in this physical world is the large-scale picture of the atoms and electrons. When we want to capture the image of a picturesque location, we use a digital camera and the image size would at max be a few MB. If we were to observe the same picture under a Scanning Electron Microscope, it would consume a whole lot of space of the order of more that TB and may be a power that has no name.
Working in the field of nanotechnology naturally is very exciting and there are excellent opportunities for people who choose this field of study. India is yet to emerge as a nation that is captivated by the ‘nano-bug’ but countries such as Singapore, USA, Switzerland and Japan have started this revolution and are not intertwined in a competition to be the best in this era of super fast computers and atomic processors. Since Nanotechnology is an inter-disciplinary field, it requires understanding of concepts from various branches of study and this would definitely be a challenge for the researchers. Research in this field will go to very great heights though it might take some time to take shape.