C Happy New Year!

[gans]

Snowman diameter of about 20 micrometers and a little more height was built, apparently, for the coming holidays. However, the application for its technology is aimed at creating a much more serious problem.

The record is pleased David Cox (David Cox) and his colleagues from the British National Physical Laboratory (NPL).
The head and torso snowman created from a pair of beads of tin, usually used for calibration of astigmatism electron microscope. For their spikes applied deposition of platinum. Assembly was carried out using nanomanipulator, and put a snowman on the console of the atomic force microscope capable of measuring the topography of objects almost at the atomic level.

The eyes and mouth, as explained by the creators of the figures in a press release the laboratory, were cut using a focused ion beam. Nose (its diameter is less than 0,001 mm) - is a "handful" of atoms of platinum, landed on the surface of tin with the ion beam.

Listed commonly used laboratory technique for creating nanoscale electromechanical devices, conducting experiments on the fixation of individual particles, experiments in the field of quantum computing, manufacturing elements for spintronics, measuring the magnetic properties of nanoscale systems using the quantum Hall effect.