# Presentation: 042991

## CAREER: Manipulating the Atom —Bottom-Up Assembly of Nanoscale MaterialsHari C. Manoharan, Stanford University, DMR 0135122

- We have performed atom-by-atom and molecule-by-molecule assembly of nanoscale materials.  A custom-built scanning tunneling microscope was used to both image and manipulate matter at the spatial limit of condensed matter.  The images shown above are topographs acquired during the assembly process of a 7-molecule quantum dot (top row), a quantum corral holding two-dimensional electrons (middle row), and the world’s smallest “NSF” logo (bottom row).  These and other devices have enabled the study of new physics at or below the nanometer length scale.

**Notes:**
Throughout history, humans have sought to expand their mastery of the material world.  Our ability to manipulate matter has been continuously refined, extending to constructions of colossal size and extreme complexity.  Progress in the diametric direction of diminishing scale has proved increasingly vital to society.  Well-known contemporary examples include the microelectronic and biotechnology industries.  The efforts within these fields rely predominantly on new tools that extend measurements, and control, to progressively smaller length scales.

In contrast to this “top-down” approach, only recently has it become practical to ponder proceeding from the bottom and working up.  For the first time, we are poised to explore critical science starting from the basic building blocks of matter—single atoms and quanta.  One may ask, rather than work our way down from the macroscopic level, what can we learn if we build up from the atomic realm?  The answer, not surprisingly, seems both manifold and deep.

This research supported by the NSF seeks to apply the “bottom-up” approach of atomic and molecular manipulation to several focused areas in science and technology.  The effort is interdisciplinary in nature, centering on physics and materials but involving ideas, techniques, and conundrums from other fields such as chemistry, engineering, and information technology.  The students working within or exposed to this comprehensive research and education plan are well-placed to become the next generation of cross-discipline educators or leading contributors to future progress in science and technology.

The nanometer scale structures shown here are among the smallest materials ever assembled, since they are comprised of countable numbers of atoms and molecules.  As they are on the edge of what is possible to construct, they have yielded new information from the tiniest length scales imaginable, and reveal that indeed, “there is plenty of room at the bottom.”

## CAREER: Manipulating the Atom —Bottom-Up Assembly of Nanoscale MaterialsHari C. Manoharan, Stanford University, DMR 0135122

- Several graduate and undergraduate students worked on research supported by this NSF grant.
- The lab web site http://mota.stanford.edu/ presents a broad-level overview of the “Manipulation of the Atom” research agenda.  A portion of the web site is devoted to public outreach for explaining various topics in nanoscience.  These briefs were composed by undergraduate students in Prof. Manoharan’s nanoscience physics course specifically for public education.

**Education:**
- With help from this NSF grant, the lab sponsors visits from external students, and teachers from middle- and high-schools.  The photos below show a visit of teachers learning how to move atoms, guided by lab graduate students.

**CAREER: Manipulating the Atom —****Bottom-Up Assembly of Nanoscale Materials**Hari C. Manoharan, Stanford University, DMR 0135122

**Notes:**
For the first time, several frontiers of physics-based research are reaching a previously unimaginable limit: the discreteness of materials.  Applying new technologies in the exploration of progressively extreme physical regimes, researchers can now access the single quanta of matter and energy that provide the fundamental ingredients of the natural world.  In the first year of undergraduate study in science and/or engineering, students typically learn about macroscopic properties—charge, light, electric and magnetic fields.  Now we can also teach our students that, remarkably, the individual constituents of all these macroscopic elements are routinely being accessed and manipulated in state-of-the-art experiments.  The investigations in this research supported by NSF are one example.  Breakthroughs in these fields have captivated students, practicing scientists, and the public at large.  It is a powerful force for education.