Russia will be able to join the global nanotechnology boom thanks to its inter-disciplinary research and traditions in instrument and material science that are still alive and kicking

Olga Ruban

A ton per nanometer

Russia has something to contribute to the nano boom. True, unlike the US, Europe and Japan, Russia is currently unable to conduct research activities across the board, yet some of its developments still manage to stand out from the bumper crop of global nanotechnology achievements.
Russia has a strong position, first of all, in the field of nano instrument-making. Russian engineers have always known how to design simple and functional instruments based on non-standard ideas and approaches. Russia is quite competitive in nanotoolkits, the tools enabling scientists to handle nanoobjects.
The scanning probe microscopes made by the Zelenograd-based NT-MDT Company established by Viktor Bykov, a graduate of Moscow Institute of Physics and Engineering (MFTI), back in 1989 represent the greatest success achieved by Russian technocrats in this area. The probe microscopes enable researchers to “feel” objects. In doing so, they are able to “see” its individual atoms and molecules and also determine some of its features. These instruments are the main tool for scientists and researchers dealing with nano structures. 
NT-MDT develops and manufactures the most delicate unit of these microscopes, its probes (often in the form of a metal needle with a point several atoms thick or in the form of an optical fiber ending in a plate just 30 nanometers in diameter), as well as their “brains,” the software enabling users to control the probe and analyze data from the object. One of the company’s latest products, the Ntegra probe nanolaboratory, unites several instruments into a single interface, enabling scientists to examine the structures and properties of nanoobjects very accurately and thoroughly.
The microscopes made by NT-MDT Company are, perhaps, the sole outstanding commercial success by a Russian company in nanotechnologies. Scientists from Zelenograd have succeeded in making their way onto the global probe microscope market and are doing extremely well there. NT-MDT exports its products to EU countries, where it has a market share of 14%, to Asian countries (9%) and to Israel (35%). Finally, the company sells a third of its instruments on the Russian domestic market.
The Nanotekh Company offers another outstanding product to the market, a power nanopositioner. This device enables scientists to move macro-objects with a mass of around a ton by nanodistances. The principle behind the positioner is magnetostriction, when samples of rare-earth alloys become longer under exposure to an external magnetic field. In the positioner, the magnetic field is applied to a rod made of D-terfenol that acts as a working body. The rod elongates and moves an object, for example, the blade of a metal-working machine. The positioner has two grades: rough and fine. The rough grade can move an object by 1-2 m with an accuracy of 2-3 microns, while the fine grade can move something 10-50 microns within 0.01 nanometer.
The inventors of the nanopositioner propose that it can be applied to such processes as diamond cutting, interactive simulators for training micro-surgeons, or decoding the structure of complex molecules. Such devices make the emergence of a new generation of high-precision machines designed to mechanically process diverse materials possible as well. The first four positioners have been sold to the French National Bureau of Measures and Weights, the holder of the standard meter. The market capacity for these devices is currently estimated at 15,000-20,000 units. The Nanotekh positioner is the only device of its kind in the world.
Russian innovators can boast of nanostructure production technologies as well. Scientists from the Institute of Physical Problems at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences developed a unique method for making semi-conductor and metal nanotubes (a winner of the 2004 Competition of Russian Innovations). Viktor Prints, a creator of this method, was awarded the Promotion Foundation prize as part of this competition. The essence of the technology is that the thinnest mono-atom films of gallium arsenide, indium arsenide and aluminum arsenide are evaporated to a substrate. After that, aluminum arsenide is etched, and the films of gallium arsenide and indium arsenide roll into tubes much like wood shavings. Thus, the Siberian scientists have succeeded in solving one of the central problems of nanotube production. They have learned to make them the appropriate size (so far, one and the same production method has created nanotubes of different lengths and diameters). This method not only produces tubes, but can also make nanocones, nanospirals, and nanocapsules. They can be applied, for example, in medicine: a nanoneedle made of such a nanotube can be used to administer intracellular injections with practically no damage to the cell. It is also possible to make conducting fibers for nanochips to be stitched in a tissue. Right around the corner are innovations such as nanosyringes, nanoneedles, nanoscalpels, and neuro-probes able to deal with individual cells, as well as probes for atomic power and tunnel microscopes.

Holograms, not masks

Material science is the second area where Russian scientists have historically been very strong. For example, specialists at the Technological Institute of Super-hard and New Carbon Materials (TISNCM) designed a new nanomaterial made of carbon atoms, an ultrahard fullerit that, according to its creators, surpasses diamond in hardness. “If you add 3-5% fullerit to ordinary steel, this composite material will be about 20% lighter and stronger than materials currently in use. It will combine high strength and plasticity, which means that it will be possible to make fundamentally new aircraft, new engineering structures, and so on,” says Vladimir Blank, Director of TISNCM. The institute’s specialists are conducting research activities in a wide range of other nanomaterials as well. Two years ago, TISNCM submitted a business plan to the Ministry of Industry and Science for a project to develop the elemental base for domestic opto- and acoustic electronics and laser and semi-conductor engineering on the basis of new nanocarbon materials. Experts at the Ministry of Finance estimated the commercial effect of this project at 6 billion rubles a year.
Another interesting nanomaterial hails from the laboratory of carbon materials at the Department of Physics at Moscow State University. The scientists have developed a fundamentally new light source based on this material. “Our sources are based on a special nanocarbon material that ejects electrons when exposed to voltage. The electrons collide with a layer of phosphor making it glow,” explains Alexander Obraztsov, the inventor of this new approach and a leading research fellow at the laboratory. New economical “nanosources” could become a cheap alternative to backlights in liquid-crystal monitors and displays, resulting in a considerable reduction in prices. One Russian company assembling TVs and LC displays from imported components has already become interested in this alternative. To launch production of the new backlights in commercial quantities, they will have to invest about $10 million.
Scientists from the Center for Photochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences have designed special nanostructures from the molecules of organic dyes. These structures emit a narrow spectrum of light, or in other words produce solid color. The Electro-Chemistry Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences has developed a new heterogeneous nanocomposite material based on these nanostructures. The new material can be used to make, for example, LEDs for a new generation of fiber-optic data transmission systems as well as for TVs and monitors. The advantage of all these devices is that they will be able to emit solid colors. So far, only laboratory models of such LEDs have been made. According to scientists, they will be ready for production in commercial quantities in a few years.
Russia has its own special approach to microelectronics, as well, thanks to Vadim Ranovsky, the designer of the nanopositiner, who has created a new electronic chip production method without masks. Professor Rakhovsky proposes using a hologram instead of a mask, which will be easier and cheaper. Circuit elements can be miniaturized by moving the hologram away from a substrate: the further the hologram is moved from the substrate, the smaller the image will be. And the hologram can be precisely aligned with the substrate via a nanotable. Using holograms instead of masks will enable those producers to switch from micro to nanoelectronics immediately.
Experts believe that Russia will be able to join the global nanoboom as a full-fledged participant. And this is not merely due to the number of existing successful projects, although they should definitely be included in the national nanoprogram, once the state develops one. Nanotechnologies are an appropriate “techno-brand” for Russia with its inter-disciplinary research traditions. “The specific feature of nanotechnologies is that they are an inter-disciplinary area. Inter-disciplinary science was widely and intensely encouraged in two countries, the US and the USSR,” says Mikhail Kovalchuk, Scientific Secretary of the Science and Technologies Council under the President and Director of the Crystallography Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “We have everything – biology, circuit technique, solid-state technologies (especially, material science instrument-making), physics, chemistry and molecular biology. We have neither wasted nor lost this base. Therefore, in my view, we have a very good start and excellent prospects – Russia can become one of the key players in this area.”

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