IBM's 35 atoms and the rise of nanotech

When IBM researcher Don Eigler picked up and moved the first individual atom 20 years ago today, he paved the way for what arguably was the smallest publicity stunt ever: IBM's logo made from a precise arrangement of 35 Xenon atoms.

But moving tiny atoms had big consequences by making the idea of assembling devices atom by atom very real. And the company has built on that nanotechnology foundation, storing information on specific gold atoms, collecting carbon monoxide molecules into computer logic circuits, and pursuing a vision for vastly more compact computing technology.

Despite the progress, Eigler is cautious about when or even if his ideas for computing will bear fruit.

"We did the introduction, and we're in chapter 1," Eigler said. "This is way off in the future, if it ever comes about. I cannot conceive, under the best circumstances, this is going to happen in 10 or 15 years."

Eigler, now an IBM fellow, said he was "boggled" that day he moved his first atom with an IBM device called a scanning tunnelling microscope. He programmed the system to make the move, then held his breath while his screen went blank during the actual operation.

"You can't see it while you actually move it. Then you see the picture come in and say, 'Yes, it's there'," Eigler said. He moved the atom back and forth three times to make sure it really worked: "For us, that's [a] sort of sacred thing. The key thing and most important thing about science is reproducibility. If you can't reproduce your own result, you might as well forget it. It's as if you'd never done it."

Shortly after that, in November 1989, Eigler arranged the 35 atoms to spell IBM. There was, of course, publicity in it for the company, but Eigler had no complaints. For one thing, it demonstrated that IBM really could control atoms with atomic-scale precision and that its work was not just a fluke. For another, Eigler was grateful that IBM let him pursue his work.

"It was more than a publicity stunt. Emotionally, for me, it was much more important. This is going to sound hokey, but it's the truth. IBM picked me up off the scrap heap of science and gave me every opportunity a scientist could hope for to be successful," Eigler said. "As far as I was concerned, it was payback time."

No mass manufacturing
Eigler and colleagues have been working on the technology since but, so far, the benefits have been indirect. That is because moving and studying atoms with a scanning tunnelling microscope and its offshoot, the atomic-force microscope, is a far cry from assembling computing devices that operate at much larger scales.

"Being able to put atoms together with atomic-scale precision at a level that allows you to deliver a marketable product is something that is largely hope and vision for our future," Eigler said. "We are not there yet."

There are other directions of nanotechnology research: Eigler gave graphene and topological insulators as possibilities. Eigler, however, remains excited to pursue his own long-term vision for computers that process information without today's reliance on the movement of electrons.

Specifically, he is interested in using the quantum mechanical property called spin for computing. The conventional conception...