Cascaded Compression of the Size Distribution of Zero-Dimensional Nanostructures

Systems and methods for cascaded compression of zero-dimensional nanostructures (0DNs) ae disclosed. The cascaded compression approach can be used to narrow the size distribution of nanopores with left skewness and ultra-small tail deviation, while keeping the density of nanopores increasing at each compression cycle. In some embodiments, a size distribution of existing nanopores can be compressed by a combination of shrinkage and expansion, with a new batch of nanopores being created, which can lead to increased nanopore density at the completion of each cycle. Moreover, cascaded compression of the 0DNs can allow for independent control of nanopore density, the mean diameter, the standard deviation, and the skewness of the size distribution.