For decades, researchers have worked toward the ability to position atoms one by one, but progress has been slow and largely confined to specialized experimental environments.
Researchers at MIT, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and collaborating institutions report a method that could make it much faster and more practical to achieve that level of control in creating advanced materials, according to Technology.org.
Here's what to know
The new approach relies on algorithms that steer an electron beam with picometer-scale accuracy — a few ten-billionths of an inch — so atoms can be repositioned inside a material's 3D crystal lattice.
In their Nature paper, the researchers reported producing more than 40,000 quantum defects in roughly 40 minutes.
Earlier approaches to moving atoms have generally worked only on material surfaces and often depended on vacuum systems, ultracold setups, and very slow step-by-step manipulation.
A well-known example came in 1989, when IBM scientists used 35 atoms to spell "IBM," highlighting both the promise of the field and how labor-intensive atomic engineering had been.
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MIT research scientist Julian Klein, lead author on the study, said that the results "demonstrate the ability to deterministically move atoms repeatedly within a material's 3D atomic lattice," per Technology.org.
"We can reprogram materials to create defects at will, realizing entirely artificial states of matter not found in nature with a wide range of potential applications, including sensing, optical, and magnetic technologies," he added.
The team tested the method in chromium sulfur bromide, a stable semiconductor, where the beam shifted columns of chromium atoms and created atom-sized vacancies associated with new quantum behaviors.
More background
The defects are created beneath the material's surface, which helps shield them from the surrounding environment.
That protection could make future quantum devices more durable and more practical for use outside tightly controlled research labs.
Better control at the atomic level could eventually support electronics that are smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient.
The researchers said the technique could help improve quantum computers, dense magnetic memory, atomic-scale logic devices, and advanced sensors — technologies that could support cleaner energy systems, smarter medical devices, and more capable consumer electronics.
MIT's TDK Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Frances Ross, said, "It's like a photocopier that can create columns of identical atomic defects," per Technology.org.
The system also helps reduce the risk of damaging the material itself.
Rather than relying on constant imaging that exposes a crystal to more electrons, the beam-control setup uses low-dose detector feedback to home in on a target site and repeat the process across many locations.
What's being done?
MIT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory said teams from both institutions co-developed the technology using high-performance microscopes at ORNL through the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences user program.
The beam moves in an oscillating pattern, spending roughly a second at each site and effectively "swiping" columns of atoms into new positions.
ORNL distinguished R&D staff member Andy Lupini said the room-temperature stability marks an important step forward.
"Other researchers, including others at ORNL, have managed to move atoms," Lupini noted, per Technology.org. "However, these shelf-stable, room-temperature techniques show viable applicability for moving large atomic arrays and are not limited to staying inside a vacuum system."
The researchers are studying other crystals to determine how broadly the method can be applied.
If it proves effective across a wider range of materials, it could open the door to programmable matter designed for specific tasks, from computing to sensing.
"This is a way of accessing physical phenomena that involve a lot of atoms placed in a certain specified arrangement, and can't be done by self-assembly," Ross said.
"You can create individually tuned atomic arrangements, and you can have so many of them, each arranged exactly how you like over areas that are tens and hundreds of nanometers."
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