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IBM in atoms was a demonstration by IBM scientists in 1989 of a technology capable of manipulating individual atoms. A scanning tunneling microscope was used to arrange 35 individual xenon atoms on a substrate of chilled crystal of nickel to spell out the three letter company initialism. It was the first time that atoms had been precisely positioned on a flat surface.

Research

Donald Eigler and Erhard Schweizer of the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, discovered the ability using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to move atoms about the surface. In the demonstration, where the microscope was used in low temperature, they positioned 35 individual xenon atoms on a substrate of chilled crystal of nickel to form the acronym "IBM". The pattern they created was 5 nm tall and 17 nm wide. They also assembled chains of xenon atoms similar in form to molecules. The demonstrated capacity showed the potential of fabricating rudimentary structures and allowed insights as to the extent of device miniaturization.

See also

• There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom – Lecture by Richard Feynman
• A Boy and His Atom – The world's smallest movie

References

1. ^ Eigler, D. M.; Schweizer, E. K. (1990). "Positioning single atoms with a scanning tunnelling microscope". Nature. 344 (6266): 524–526. doi:10.1038/344524a0. ISSN 0028-0836.
2. "2 Researchers Spell 'I.B.M.,' Atom by Atom". The New York Times. 5 April 1990.
3. "IBM's 35 atoms and the rise of nanotech". CNET News.
4. Hey, Anthony J. G.; Hey, Tony; Walters, Patrick (2003). The New Quantum Universe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 82. ISBN 0521564182.
5. ^ Baird, Davis; Nordmann, Alfred; Schummer, Joachim (2004). Discovering the Nanoscale. Amsterdam: IOS Press. pp. 140. ISBN 1586034677.

External links

• "IBM" in atoms at IBM's archives

v t e Scanning probe microscopy
Common	Atomic force Conductive Infrared Non-contact Photoconductive Scanning tunneling Electrochemical Spin polarized
Other	Ballistic electron emission Chemical force Electrostatic force Kelvin probe force Magnetic force Magnetic resonance force Near-field scanning optical Nano-FTIR Photon scanning Photothermal microspectroscopy Piezoresponse force Scanning capacitance Scanning electrochemical Scanning gate Scanning Hall probe Scanning ion-conductance Scanning joule expansion Scanning Kelvin probe Scanning quantum dot microscopy Scanning SQUID microscope Scanning SQUID microscopy Scanning thermal Scanning voltage
Applications	Scanning probe lithography Dip-pen nanolithography Feature-oriented scanning Millipede memory
See also	Nanotechnology Microscope Microscopy Vibrational analysis

v t e Nanolithography
Main	Optical Electron beam Nanoimprint Multiphoton Scanning probe
Other	Molecular self-assembly Stencil X-ray Ion beam Magnetolithography Plasmonic Soft Laser printing Nanosphere Proton beam
See also	Nanotechnology Nanoelectronics

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