Definitions
Nanotechnologies, from fundamentals to applications

Nanoscience and nanotechnology can be defined as the science and technology of nanoscopic systems. The prefix "nano" refers to the nanometer (nm), or thousandth of a micrometer (or 10 ^-9 m). The systems under consideration have one or more dimensions between 1 and a few hundred nanometers. As a reminder, the typical radius of atoms is of the order of a tenth of a nanometer (0.1 nm = 1 Å). When particles have dimensions of the order of a nanometer or more, they are called nanoparticles.