IBM in atoms was a demonstration by IBM scientists in 1989 of a technology capable of manipulating individual atoms.[1] 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.[2][3]
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.[4] In the demonstration, where the microscope was used in low temperature,[5] they positioned 35 individual xenon atoms on a substrate of chilled crystal of nickel to form the acronym "IBM".[1] The pattern they created was 5 nm tall and 17 nm wide. They also assembled chains of xenon atoms similar in form to molecules.[1] The demonstrated capacity showed the potential of fabricating rudimentary structures and allowed insights as to the extent of device miniaturization.[5]
