The Near and Far Future of Raman Microscopy

一段时间以来，许多高价值行业的趋势一直是制造更小的设备。这一趋势在纳米技术的发展中表现得尤为突出。这是一种尺寸为几十亿米的设备的制造。纳米技术有可能极大地提高计算能力和内存存储量，但这只是其中的一小部分。纳米技术的一个主要问题是，你是否知道你实际上已经完成了你的目标！有一些技术可以使这些小物体可视化，但没有办法告诉它是否是由正确的材料在正确的位置和正确的功能。我们的目标是开发技术，使科学家能够实际探测纳米器件或分子的化学和物理尺寸。我们将使用非常小的金针，可以作为照明棒的光！这将产生非常强大和非常小的光源，我们可以立即将其放在纳米器件旁边。从光与材料的相互作用中，我们可以了解它的化学指纹。针也可以同时用来“感觉”物体的大小。这种仪器对科学家和那些对这种规模的制造感兴趣的人，特别是计算机芯片制造商来说，将具有巨大的价值。这种仪器的开发也将在实际制造纳米器件方面带来新的可能性。针尖处的光可以用来烧掉材料，从而允许对设备的结构进行雕刻。此外，针可以用作镊子来移动少量的材料/单个分子或原子。这些可能性将带来制造业和科学的革命。在医学应用中，它将允许单细胞手术。该工具可以切开电池，识别并移除故障组件，并在移除后密封电池。在开发所述工具时获得的知识和经验将是无与伦比的。可以预见，这种知识水平将在其他应用领域创造新的机会。一个这样的领域可能是光计算领域。这是有点违反直觉，但光可以传输沿着金属线！这些电线必须非常细，并由特定材料支撑。光也可以沿着沿着一串微小的金属点跳跃，可以绕过拐角或穿过网络。这就提出了一种可能性，即像今天的计算机用硅制成的电路一样，将来可能会传输光，甚至代替电。如果这一计划能够成功，那么几十年后，比尔·克林顿在2000年提出的将美国国会图书馆的所有信息（大约530英里的书架上有1.3亿条信息）存储在一块糖块大小的存储设备上的目标将成为可能。

For some time the trend in many high-value industries has been to manufacture ever smaller devices. This trend is shown in its extreme case in the development of nanotechnology. This is the manufacture of devices which are a few billions of a metre in size. Nanotechnology holds the promise of huge increases in computing power and memory storage to name but a very few.A major problem in nanotechnology is in knowing that you've actually made what you set out to! There are techniques which enable the visualisation of these small objects, but there are no ways to tell whether it is made of the correct materials in the right place and with the proper function. We aim to develop technologies which will allow a scientist to actually probe the chemistry as well as the physical size of a nanodevice or molecule. We'll use extremely small gold needles which can act as lighting rods for light! These will create very powerful and very small light sources which we can put immediately next to the nanodevices. From the interaction of the light and the material we can understand its chemical fingerprint. The needle can also be used at the same time to 'feel' the size of the object. This instrument would be of huge value to scientists and those interested in manufacturing on this scale, particularly the makers of computer chips.The development of this instrument will also spin-off new possibilities in the actual creation of nanodevices. The light at the needle tip could be used to burn away material allowing the sculpting of the device's architecture. Also the needle could be used as tweezers to move tiny amounts of material / single molecules or maybe atoms. These possibilities would bring about a revolution in manufacturing and science. In application to medicine it would allow single cell surgery. This tool could cut open a cell, identify and remove a faulty component and the seal-up the cell after its removal.The knowledge and experience gained in developing the tools described will be unrivalled. It can be predicted that this level of knowledge will create new opportunities in other areas of application. One such area may be the field of computing with light. It is somewhat counter-intuitive but light can be transmitted along metal wires! These wires have to be very thin and supported on specific materials. The light can also hop along a chain of tiny metal dots and can go around corners or through networks. This raises the possibility that circuits, like those made in silicon for today's computers, may in the future transmit light as well as, or even instead of, electricity. If this should succeed, then a few decades from now Bill Clinton's 2000 goal of having every piece of information contained in the US Library of Congress (130 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves) stored on a memory device the size of a sugar lump will be possible.