Ultrahigh-Speed Rotating Nanoelectromechanical System (NEMS) Devices Assembled from Nanoscale Building Blocks

摘要

The development of rotary nanomotors is crucial for further advancing NEMStechnology. In this work, we report innovative design, assembly, and rotationof ordered arrays of nanomotors. The nanomotors were bottom-up assembled fromnanoscale building blocks with nanowires as rotors, patterned nanomagnets asbearings, and quadrupole microelectrodes as stators. Arrays of nanomotors canbe synchronously rotated with controlled angle, speed (to at least 18,000 rpm),and chirality by electric fields. Using analytical modeling, we revealed thefundamental nanoscale electrical, mechanical, and magnetic interactions in thenanomotor system, which excellently agrees with experimental results andprovides critical understanding for designing future metallic NEMS devices. Thenanowire motors were applied for controlled biomolecule release, and for thefirst time demonstrated releasing rate of biochemicals on nanoparticles can betuned by mechanical rotation. The innovations reported in this research, fromconcept, design, actuation, to application are relevant to NEMS, nanomedicine,microfluidics, and lab-on-chip architectures.