- Quién
- Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo
- Qué
- 0.697 micrometre(s) aka micron(s)
- Dónde
- Canada (Waterloo)
- Cuándo
The smallest national flag is 0.697 square micrometres, and was achieved by the Institute for Quantum Computing (Canada) in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, as measured on 6 September 2016.
The flag is the national flag of Canada, and its colour was created by oxidising a bare silicon wafer in a tube furnace in order to grow a layer of Silicon dioxide of a carefully chosen thickness. Thin film interference effects in the silicon dioxide layer gives the flag a red colour. However, the flag is too small for conventional imaging techniques, so the only images we are able to see of the flag are in electron-microscopy grayscale.
The Institute for Quantum Computing created the flag in celebration of Canada's sesquicentennial anniversary, and to bring a spotlight to the quantum and nanoscale research being undertaken in Canada.