Eurekalert July 9, 2018
An international team of researchers (Austria, Norway, Belgium) used the advanced electron microscope to move single silicon atoms in graphene with atomic precision. They have taken the first steps towards automation by detecting the jumps in real time. The new results also improve theoretical models of the process by including simulations. In total, the researchers recorded nearly 300 controlled jumps. Silicon impurity could be moved back and forth between two neighboring lattice sites separated by one tenth-billionth of a meter, like flipping an atomic-sized switch. In principle, this could be used to store one bit of information at record-high density… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Step by step this allows the silicon to be moved with atomic precision around a hexagonal path. CREDIT: © CC-BY, Toma Susi / University of Vienna