Sixteen of the computers are connected via a gigabit ethernet switch from Foundry Networks, enabling high bandwidth communications for demanding parallel applications. Under these conditions hydrogen is excluded from the carbon nanotube. As the electronic circuits on computer chips become smaller and smaller, conventional transistors run into physical limitations caused by extreme miniaturization. To build those devices, scientists must be able to manipulate these tubes to the highest degree of accuracy. Carbon nanotubes consist of rolled up sheets of carbon hexagons.
Nanotubes have the potential for use as minuscule wires or in ultrasmall electronic devices.
To build these devices using nanotubes, researchers are conducting simulations to understand how they interact with surfaces and electrical contacts. There is also interest in using carbon nanotubes for hydrogen storage for fuel applications and using nanotubes to safely transport chemical reactants to specific reactant sites. Karl Johnson in Chemical Engineering is studying the adsroption of hydrogen in nanotubes using the LMMS facilities. STM was developed by scientists at IBM in Zurich, and is used to characterize and modify surfaces at the atomic level. This will be important to the semiconductor industry for its potential to advance the technology of information storage.