Physorg.com

The U.S. Department of Defense is awarding a team of nine professors from six universities $6 million over five years to exploit precise biological assembly for the study of quantum physics in nanoparticle arrays. This research will help to produce a fundamental understanding of quantum electronic systems, which could impact the way future electronics are created.

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The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science is teaming up with leading researchers at the University of Minnesota, New York University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University to develop biological strategies combining DNA, proteins, and peptides with chemical synthesis techniques to construct arrays of nanoparticles. (A nanoparticle array consists of metal particles with a diameter of 0.5-5 nanometers. The interactions among them produce highly correlated behaviors.)

Joining biological to man-made materials is the first step to a whole new materials assembly technique that will operate on the nanoscale. Interactions between precisely arranged metallic nanoparticles could lead to new physics discoveries – as well as to new mechanisms for computing, signal processing, and sensing.

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