Dr. Don Eigler is a pioneer in the world of amazingly tiny things. He was the first person capable of moving atoms. Last week TU Delft gave this American an honorary PhD.
br />
Nanotechnology is hot. This year the US government is funding 520 million dollars worth of research. “All this exploration of new ideas is very exciting, but we don’t know where it’s going yet,” says Don Eigler, 49, an IBM researcher who, in 1993, was named an IBM Fellow, the corporation’s highest technical honour. “I believe in it, and there are too many ideas and too much progress and investment in this field for it not to happen.”
In 1989, Eigler achieved fame by using individual xenon atoms to write the letters IBM. He was able to do this after building a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) that could track atoms around on a copper plate.
Currently, Eigler is working on a project for schoolchildren, in which they can move atoms themselves, using IBM’s internet site. “I want children to become fascinated and curious about science. I’d like to give them an opportunity to experience something they never have before.”
During the 1990s, Eigler enlivened quantum physics by producing STM-pictures that clearly showed the wave nature of electrons. In 2000, Eigler and his colleagues devised what they call a quantum mirage. The operation of the quantum mirage is similar to how sound waves focus on a particular spot on ‘whispering walls’ in certain old buildings. They created the mirage by placing a magnetic atom (a cobalt atom) at one focal point of an elliptical ring of iron atoms. This created a kind of mirage of the magnetic atom at another focal point, providing a possible means of transmitting information without wires. Applying this phenomenon in computers is still a long way off, however.
Moving atoms remains a slow process. “In the laboratory we don’t mind the slowness, but it’s too slow for manufacturing. We first need to understand more about the physics behind it,” Eigler says. “I don’t think there are natural laws that will prevent us from doing things quicker in the future. Nature forms complex structures very quickly. A snowflake, for example, crystallizes super fast. So it is possible. Up until now, though, only chemists know how to do this. As physicists, we can’t yet do it in a controlled manner.”
Dr. Don Eigler is a pioneer in the world of amazingly tiny things. He was the first person capable of moving atoms. Last week TU Delft gave this American an honorary PhD.
Nanotechnology is hot. This year the US government is funding 520 million dollars worth of research. “All this exploration of new ideas is very exciting, but we don’t know where it’s going yet,” says Don Eigler, 49, an IBM researcher who, in 1993, was named an IBM Fellow, the corporation’s highest technical honour. “I believe in it, and there are too many ideas and too much progress and investment in this field for it not to happen.”
In 1989, Eigler achieved fame by using individual xenon atoms to write the letters IBM. He was able to do this after building a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) that could track atoms around on a copper plate.
Currently, Eigler is working on a project for schoolchildren, in which they can move atoms themselves, using IBM’s internet site. “I want children to become fascinated and curious about science. I’d like to give them an opportunity to experience something they never have before.”
During the 1990s, Eigler enlivened quantum physics by producing STM-pictures that clearly showed the wave nature of electrons. In 2000, Eigler and his colleagues devised what they call a quantum mirage. The operation of the quantum mirage is similar to how sound waves focus on a particular spot on ‘whispering walls’ in certain old buildings. They created the mirage by placing a magnetic atom (a cobalt atom) at one focal point of an elliptical ring of iron atoms. This created a kind of mirage of the magnetic atom at another focal point, providing a possible means of transmitting information without wires. Applying this phenomenon in computers is still a long way off, however.
Moving atoms remains a slow process. “In the laboratory we don’t mind the slowness, but it’s too slow for manufacturing. We first need to understand more about the physics behind it,” Eigler says. “I don’t think there are natural laws that will prevent us from doing things quicker in the future. Nature forms complex structures very quickly. A snowflake, for example, crystallizes super fast. So it is possible. Up until now, though, only chemists know how to do this. As physicists, we can’t yet do it in a controlled manner.”
Comments are closed.