Editing Nanotechnology (section)

===Top-down approaches===
These seek to create smaller devices by using larger ones to direct their assembly.
*Many technologies that descended from conventional [[semiconductor fabrication|solid-state silicon methods]] for fabricating [[microprocessor]]s are capable of creating features smaller than 100&nbsp;nm. [[Giant magnetoresistance]]-based hard drives already on the market fit this description,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nano.gov/html/facts/appsprod.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101120234415/http://www.nano.gov/html/facts/appsprod.html|archive-date=2010-11-20|title=Applications/Products|access-date=2007-10-19|publisher=National Nanotechnology Initiative}}</ref> as do [[atomic layer deposition]] (ALD) techniques. [[Peter Grünberg]] and [[Albert Fert]] received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007 for their discovery of giant magnetoresistance and contributions to the field of [[spintronics]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2007/index.html|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 2007|access-date=2007-10-19|publisher=Nobelprize.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805062614/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2007/index.html|archive-date=2011-08-05}}</ref>
*Solid-state techniques can be used to create [[nanoelectromechanical systems]] or NEMS, which are related to [[microelectromechanical systems]] or MEMS.
*[[Focused ion beam]]s can directly remove material, or even deposit material when suitable precursor gasses are applied at the same time. For example, this technique is used routinely to create sub-100&nbsp;nm sections of material for analysis in [[transmission electron microscopy]].
*Atomic force microscope tips can be used as a nanoscale "write head" to deposit a resist, which is then followed by an etching process to remove material in a top-down method.