Moving objects at the nanoscale using thermal regions

said braka 1:36 AM
To use another analogy, these vertical waves, known as

flexural phonons, push the nanocluster in the same way that ocean waves push a surfboard to shore, no matter how far away the wave came from. These theoretical predictions could be of great interest in manipulating materials at the nanoscale. The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Temperature gradients in a fluid impart on a body a force that can displace it. Such a phenomenon, technically referred to as thermophoresis, has been known for centuries. More recently, numerical simulations have indicated that such a gradient-induced spatial shift also works for molecules or small clusters placed on a solid two-dimensional membrane like . But no one ever tried to understand the physics behind the process. This was the aim of our study," the scientists explain.
Using specific software, the researchers have simulated the behaviour of a tiny gold nanocluster, made of a few hundred atoms, adsorbed on a  suspended between two ends with different temperatures.
"In such a condition, the particle actually moves from the hot to the cold end. Surprisingly, though, the thrust impressed to it only depends on the thermal gradient and not on the sheet length," say the researchers. Thus, it is shown that the distance between the two ends of the membrane has no influence on the force acting on the gold cluster—this force remains constant up to and beyond a 100-nanometer sheet length.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-08-nanoscale-thermal-regions.html#jCp