Tailored Nanomaterials Systems Based on Artificial Design and Fabrication: An Overview of the Synthetic Nanofunction Materials Project

One of the most attractive and challenging features of materials research on the nanometer scale is the possibility to rationally design and fabricate novel functionalities, largely away from the ever demanding trial-and-error approach. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Japan, launched in the year 2001 the Synthetic Nanofunction Materials (SYNAF) project under the initiative of METI??s Nanotechnology Program. The objective of this 5-year SYNAF project is to lay a precursory route to the "nanomaterial design" by focusing on the single molecular and spintronic materials and devices. By combining the first principle quantum mechanical calculations of molecular wires and spin-dependent band structures of magnetic semiconductors with the state-of-the-art nanofabrication techniques including the probe oxidation nanolithography, we have been successful to demonstrate the (at least partial) feasibility of the design-driven approach to nanomaterials and devices. The present talk will give a summary of our activities and our future prospect.