2018 R&D 100 Award for The Atomic Forge

The Atomic Forge is a new fabrication approach that repurposes a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) to assemble and manipulate matter atom-by-atom. The technology uses STEM electron-beam modification, custom beam control and real-time feedback to create 3D nanometer-scale crystalline structures and controllable atomic assemblies in 2D and 3D, one atom and one atomic plane at a time.

The Atomic Forge is the first to use the STEM approach and the first to allow sample monitoring during manipulation. Fabrication time is significantly faster than scanning tunneling microscope (STM) assembly, from hours to minutes, and can be operated at room temperature with a high vacuum, rather than cryogenic temperatures and an ultrahigh vacuum. The controller-software module is compatible with modern STEMs and provides a pathway towards large-scale fabrication of materials with pre-defined properties, Beyond-Moore’s-Law technologies, quantum computing devices and the realization of complex molecular machines and nanorobotics.

The development team, led by Sergei Kalinin and Stephen Jesse, included Ondrej Dyck, Albina Borisevich, Bethany Hudak, Andrew Lupini, Raymond Unocic and Ivan Kravchenko.

Funding for this project was provided by ORNL Seed Money, ORNL’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program and DOE’s Office of Science.