Rethinking Deposition at the Scale of an Atom

The aim of all human action is to rearrange the world into a more preferable state. The field of engineering, with ever increasing degrees of precision, seeks to arrange matter such that desirable functional properties are elicited. With routine fabrication procedures edging into the single digit nanometer scale, one begins to wonder about the bottom.1 This talk will discuss current efforts at controllably attaching atoms to single and bilayer graphene using an electron beam in a scanning transmission electron microscope. The effects of source and sample temperature on defect and adatom diffusion will be discussed. In addition, the effects of temperature on the rate of healing, desorption, and effective damage rate will be elaborated with a view toward refined top down control. Demonstrations of patterning single atoms and atomic clusters as well as the direct writing of chains of Sn atoms into graphene will be presented.²<br/>(1) Feynman, R. P. There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom. <i>Engineering and science</i> <b>1960</b>, <i>23</i> (5), 22–36.<br/>(2) This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division (O.D. A.R.L., S.J.), and was performed at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), a U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science User Facility.