Picture of the little Mona Lisa

The world's most famous painting was developed by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology on a surface of about 30 microns, or about a third of the hair.

The lines on the picture reach the nanometer scale, and the picture is only visible through the atomic microscope.

The work of the group's Mona Lisa

To create this picture, the team heated the substrate with NanoLithography . By changing the temperature profile at each location on the surface, scientists can control the number of molecules produced from the chemical reaction that takes place there.

In hotter positions, the more reaction products produce, the lower the thermal positions are in the brighter the color. The difference in heat at each location produces different intensity of colors and fluorescents are used to make the picture. Each pixel on the picture is only 125 nanometers apart.

"By adjusting the temperature, we conduct a chemical reaction to produce a change in molecular level at the nanoscale ," said lead author Professor Jenniger Curtis . The positioning of the chemical reaction on the surface determines the precision of the picture '.

Microscopes and atomic force scanners allow accurate positioning to each nanometer

This is a very difficult technique. The team is currently working on amine-based materials and hopefully in the near future can be applied to other materials.

"We are trying to apply NanoLithography technology to materials and based on other physical properties such as the conductivity of graphite. This technique is superior to previous techniques and it can be applied in a wide variety of nanotechnology, photovoltaics and biotechnology, " said Professor Jenniger Curtis.