A Self-Organizing Bucket Brigade

A self-organizing "bucket brigade" or charge transportation system is studied. This system serves as a prototype of controlled dynamic self-assembly with applications to micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS). An experimental system is described and results of several experiments presented. Two theoretical approaches to the analysis of the system are described. A physics-based first-principles model is used to analyze the system in detail. From this, a rules-based model is abstracted from which other self-organizing transportation systems may be designed.