1. Context

Nanotechnologies (or "nanosciences" as they are better known) are booming, but have few industrial applications. There are many reasons for this: manufacturing costs, understanding phenomena, experimental studies of nanoscale properties, lifetimes of engineered structures, connections between nanostructures... These problems would appear to be difficult to solve simply by downscaling and using the manufacturing processes that have contributed to the success of microtechnology. Consequently, the change of scale required to develop...