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Progress in nanoscale science enabled a radically new perspective on the fundamental properties
of materials affecting a wide range of applications. For example, nanoscale photonic materials
offer size-dependent emission spectra and a high stability over a wide range of temperatures.
Biologically inspired materials used as a building block or a template enable nano-fabrication of
materials for quantum applications, such as quantum-dot lasers, quantum logic gates, and
quantum computing. A combination of bio and nano features breeds new kinds of materials with
potential for energy harvesting and storage. Artificially driven quantum constraints on intrinsic
level transitions within thin-film or quantum-dot structures offer new possibilities for optical
device technology. However, such application-specific nanoscale fabrication of materials
requires advanced measurement and manipulation technologies to characterize the uniqueness of
nanoscale materials in electromagnetic, thermal, photonic, and structural properties and functions
in nanoscale materials.
Several new application-specific nano-bio technologies, such as bionanobattery, bio-template for
size-controlled quantum-dots, quantum aperture, and smart optical devices which were
developed by a group of researchers at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) will be
discussed. These applications illustrate the fusion of bio, nano, and quantum technologies.
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