Highest print resolution possible is reached

Nature : A 50 Ã 50 micrometer test image, produced in full color, has a resolution of 100â000 dots per inch, 10 times the resolution of ink and laser-jet printers. Using electron-beam lithography, researchers at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore created on a silicon wafer an array of nanoscale pillars capped with silver and gold nanodisks. Each pixel contained four pillars, and by varying the diameter and space between the pillars, the researchers were able to control the wavelength, and therefore the color, of the reflected light. The spacing of the pixels was just 250 nm, right at the edge of the diffraction limit. If they were any closer, the reflected light would blur. Joel Yang, who led the project, says the next step is to develop a stamping method of printing because electron-beam lithography is very slow over larger areas. He believes the technique could be used for cryptography, nanoscale watermarking, and high-density optical storage.