For more than 25 years, physicists have predicted that shrinking certain semiconductor nanotubes to extreme dimensions would fundamentally alter their electronic behaviour.
The problem was proving it.
Structures at this scale are notoriously difficult to manufacture because they become unstable long before reaching the sizes required for experimental validation.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have now overcome that challenge by creating atomically precise molybdenum disulphide nanotubes measuring just one nanometre in diameter, approximately 100,000 times thinner than a human hair.
Beyond establishing one of the world's smallest semiconducting nanotubes, the achievement resolves a long-standing theoretical question about how electronic properties change at the nanoscale and provides a new platform for designing future ultra-miniaturised electronic components.How ultrathin molybdenum disulphide nanotubes could transform future transistors and quantum devicesNanotubes have attracted scientific interest since the early 1990s because their cylindrical atomic structures can exhibit unusual electrical, optical and mechanical properties.
