Presently, most microelectronic devices are fabricated using top-down approaches. Over the next years these processes will reach the limits of technological instrument resolution. A broad range of applications require ultrasmall, complex devices that cannot be produced using top-down methods. New processes building on the natural self-organization of matter should therefore be conceived and developed, along with adequate characterization methods in order to allow for their application in innovative devices. Focusing on this dynamic new field, self-assembly “the science of things that put themselves together” explores the physics of nanostructures, new synthesis approaches, in addition to size-, shape- and composition-dependent properties. The major obstacles concern the reproducibility and control of the basic mechanisms in order to predict and produce patterns with tunable size, periodicity and position and the new physical properties resulting from low dimensionality.

See also the Thematic Series:
Self-assembly of nanostructures and nanomaterials II
Self-assembly at solid surfaces