Manipulation of atoms across a surface at room temperature
Date
2000Source Title
Nature
Print ISSN
0028-0836
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Volume
404
Issue
6779
Pages
743 - 745
Language
English
Type
ArticleItem Usage Stats
178
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199
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Abstract
Since the realization that the tips of scanning probe microscopes can interact with atoms at surfaces, there has been much interest in the possibility of building or modifying nanostructures or molecules directly from single atoms. Individual large molecules can be positioned on surfaces, and atoms can be transferred controllably between the sample and probe tip. The most complex structures are produced at cryogenic temperatures by sliding atoms across a surface to chosen sites. But there are problems in manipulating atoms laterally at higher temperatures - atoms that are sufficiently well bound to a surface to be stable at higher temperatures require a stronger tip interaction to be moved. This situation differs significantly from the idealized weakly interacting tips of scanning tunnelling or atomic force microscopes. Here we demonstrate that precise positioning of atoms on a copper surface is possible at room temperature. The triggering mechanism for the atomic motion unexpectedly depends on the tunnelling current density, rather than the electric field or proximity of tip and surface.
Keywords
ArticleAtom
Chemical structure
Electric current
Molecular dynamics
Molecular interaction
Molecular stability
Priority journal
Temperature sensitivity