Measuring only 40 micrometres in diameter, researchers at DTU Physics have made the smallest record ever cut. Featuring the first 25 seconds of the Christmas classic "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree", the single is cut using a new nano-sculpting machine – the Nanofrazor – recently acquired from Heidelberg Instruments. The Nanofrazor can engrave 3D patterns into surfaces with nanoscale resolution, allowing the researchers to create new nanostructures that may pave the way for novel technologies in fields such as quantum devices, magnetic sensors and electron optics.
"I have done lithography for 30 years, and although we've had this machine for a while, it still feels like science fiction. We've done many experiments, like making a copy of the Mona Lisa in a 12 by 16-micrometre area with a pixel size of ten nanometers. We've also printed an image of DTU's founder – Hans Christian Ørsted – in an 8 by 12-micrometre size with a pixel size of 2.540.000 DPI. To get an idea of the scale we are working at, we could write our signatures on a red blood cell with this thing," says Professor Peter Bøggild from DTU Physics.
"The most radical thing is that we can create free-form 3D landscapes at that crazy resolution – this grey-scale nanolithography is a true game-changer for our research".
Nanoscale Christmas record – in stereo
The Nanofrazor is not like a printer adding material to a medium; instead, it works like a CNC (computer numerical controle) machine removing material at precise locations, leaving the desired shape behind. In the case of the miniature pictures of Mona Lisa and H.C. Ørsted, the final image is defined by the line-by-line removal of polymer until a perfect grey-scale image emerges. To Peter Bøggild, an amateur musician and vinyl record enthusiast, the idea of cutting a nanoscale record was obvious.
"We decided that we might as well try and print a record. We've taken a snippet of Rocking Around The Christmas Tree and have cut it just like you would cut a normal record—although, since we're working on the nanoscale, this one isn't playable on your average turntable. The Nanofrazor was put to work as a record-cutting lathe – converting an audio signal into a spiralled groove on the surface of the medium. In this case, the medium is a different polymer than vinyl. We even encoded the music in stereo – the lateral wriggles is the left channel, whereas the depth modulation contains the right channel. It may be too impractical and expensive to become a hit record. To read the groove, you need a rather costly atomic force microscope or the Nanofrazor, but it is definitely doable."
