Carbon atoms are no longer the only material of choice for nanotubes.
They hope to drive the development of microscopically small building components with their new technique. This layer is in turn coated with two thin layers of material, between which a tension is created according to the bimetal principle. When the sacrificial layer is removed, the double layer on top of it comes off as a thin foil. Because of the differing inner tensions of the two layers, this foil coils up like a spring. The researchers report that nanotubes created in this way may wind themselves up to 30 times, and can be limited to a size of just a few millionths of a millimeter.