Atomic Scale Characterization and Manipulation Laboratory

Location:  Bldg. 220, Rm. B48 

Future generations of electronics, informa­tion processing, and data storage technologies will be based on nanoscale elements with unusual properties that will enable innovative device capabilities.  To harness the potential of nanotechnology, measurement tools and methods are needed that can not only characterize nanostructures at the atomic scale, but create them with atomic precision.  In this laboratory we have constructed a system for atomic scale measurements of the electronic and magnetic properties of materials using a cryogenic (4 K), high magnetic field (10 T) scanning tunneling microscope.  Atom manipulation can be used to fabricate unique quantum structures in a "quantum workbench" — an approach that builds and measures nanostructures at the single-atom scale.  New measurement methods have been devised to measure the dynamics of single atoms and artificially engineered nanostructures.  Moreover, nanostructures can be autonomously created atom-by-atom through a computerized atom assembler.