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Article: Light lens precisely guides atom beams.
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- March 14, 1992
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Today's semiconductor manufacturers use photolithography to etch microscopic circuits onto computer chips: They shine light through a mask onto a photosensitive surface to create the circuit's pattern. But to make nanometer-size circuits--about 1,000 times finer than current ones--these companies may one day use light in a very different way.
To work, photolithography depends on atoms in a mask to block light from parts of its target surface. But in a new process developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, N.J., light does the blocking for atoms. "Instead of using matter to control light, we're using light to control matter," says Bell Labs physicist ...