M. T. Cuberes, R. R. Schlittler, and J. K. Gimzewski "Room-temperature repositioning of individual C60 molecules at Cu steps: Operation of a molecular counting device" Applied Physics Letters, Volume 69, Number 20 (p. 3016), November 11, 1996.


Description:

Scientists at the IBM Research Division's Zurich laboratory have built an abacus with individual molecules (C60 or "buckyballs") as beads with a diameter of less than one nanometer.  The world's smallest abacus uses the ultrafine tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) - a needle of conical shape terminating in a single atom at the very tip - as a "finger" to move the tiny individual molecule "beads".  The STM also makes the result of a "calculation" visible when operated in imaging mode.

IBM scientists succeeded in forming stable rows of ten molecules along steps just one atom high on a copper surface. These steps act as "rails", similar to the earliest form of the abacus, which had grooves instead of rods to keep the beads in line. Individual molecules were then approached by the STM tip and pushed back and forth in a precisely controlled way to count from 0 to 10 (see image).

 

 Previous Day/Next Day

Please contact the webmaster if you would like to submit an image