Femtotechnology

♤ Femtotechnology is a hypothetical term used in reference to structuring of matter on the scale of a femtometer, which is 10−15 m

♤ This is a smaller scale in comparison to nanotechnology and picotechnology which refer to 10−9 m and 10−12 m respectively

♤ Work in the femtometer range involves manipulation of excited energy states within atomic nuclei to produce metastable (stabilized) states with unusual properties.

♤ Metastable refers to the fact that these excited states have half-lives more than 100 to 1000 times the half-lives of the excited nuclear states that decay with a "prompt" half life (ordinarily on the order of 10−12 seconds)

♤ Practical applications of femtotechnology are currently considered to be unlikely. The hypothetical hafnium bomb can be considered a crude application of femtotechnology.