Quantum dots print tiniest inkjet image

2 min read Original article ↗

Researchers in Switzerland have created what has been classed as the world's smallest inkjet-printed picture.

They made a 0.08mm-by-0.115mm (0.003in-by-0.005in) colour photo of tropical clown fish, which is about as wide as a piece of photocopy paper is thick.

They printed it using "quantum dot" technology, an innovation also being deployed in new high-end TVs.

The nanotechnologists say their achievement, external has been verified by the Guinness World Records.

The photo of the fish - which are 3,333 times bigger in real life than in the picture - was printed at a resolution of 25,000 dots per inch (dpi).

There is 500 nanometres (0.0005mm) between each dot on each of the three colour layers deposited - red, green and blue.

Rather than squirt normal ink, "quantum dots" were used.

These are tiny particles that emit a different colour of light according to their size.

Smaller ones appear blue, mid-size ones are green and the bigger type are red.

The light generated by quantum dots is particularly intense, which makes them attractive to TV-makers, who have struggled to produce large OLED screens at affordable prices - another technology known for delivering colour-rich images.

One of the team suggested their technique could ultimately be adapted to "print" screens on demand.

"In a futuristic scenario, you could imagine having a plastic foil that goes into a printer and on the other side there is a display coming out," Dr Patrick Galliker told the BBC.

"You'd have all the functionality of a [video] screen, which has just been printed using nanomaterials that are in a liquid phase."