Nanotechnology deals with the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. As such, this branch of physics deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres. The comparative size of a nanometer to a meter is the same as that of a marble to the size of the earth.
Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale and entails the application of fields of science as diverse as surface science, organic chemistry, molecular biology, semiconductor physics, microfabrication, etc.
Two main approaches are used in nanotechnology. In the “bottom-up” approach, materials and devices are built from molecular components which assemble themselves chemically by principles of molecular recognition. In the “top-down” approach, nano-objects are constructed from larger entities without atomic-level control.
Areas of physics such as nanoelectronics, nanomechanics, nanophotonics and nanoionics have evolved during the last few decades to provide a basic scientific foundation of nanotechnology.
The first nanoengineering program in the world was started at the University of Toronto within the Engineering Science program as one of the Options of study in the final years. In 2003, the Lund Institute of Technology started a program in Nanoengineering. In 2005, the University of Waterloo established a unique program which offers a full degree in Nanotechnology Engineering. Louisiana Tech University started the first program in the U.S. in 2005. In 2006 the University of Duisburg-Essen started a Bachelor and a Master program NanoEngineering. The University of California, San Diego followed shortly thereafter in 2007 with its own department of Nanoengineering. In 2009, the University of Toronto began offering all Options of study in Engineering Science as degrees, bringing the second nanoengineering degree to Canada. DTU Nanotech – the Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology – is a department at the Technical University of Denmark established in 1990.