Nanotubes used to create smallest ever hologram pixels

A breakthrough in the use of carbon nanotubes as optical projectors has enabled scientists to generate holograms using the smallest ever pixels.

Scientists have generated holograms from carbon nanotubes for the first time, which could lead to much sharper holograms with a vastly increased field of view.

The researchers from the University's Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics (CMMPE) have harnessed the extraordinary conductive and light scattering abilities of these tubes – made from several sheets of carbon atoms rolled into a cylinder – to diffract high resolution holograms.

Carbon nanotubes are one billionth of a metre wide, only a few nanometres, and the scientists have used them as the smallest ever scattering elements to create a static holographic projection of the word CAMBRIDGE.