Manipulation and control at the atomic scale offer the ultimate engineering capability in terms of size of the building blocks and the possibility to design and assemble at the atomic scale a device or a machine able to perform computations, mechanical motion or signal transduction. The aim is to exploit recent advances in physics, chemistry and biology to put at work a single atom or molecule, control its functionality on an atomic scale.
The detailed control of processes at the atomic scale will enable new information processing paradigms and technologies, exploring for example:
- New methods to process the information at the atomic-scale compared to the sole charged carrier transport in existing microelectronic technologies ; e.g. transfer of excitons, plasmons, or chemical (mechanical) information inside a single molecule or between molecules,
- The use of the inherent precision of atoms and molecules as sensors, measurement devices and standards.
- The use of single atom technologies to functionalize artificial (bio) molecules.
- The use of a common platforms (nanometer scale devices) combining (bridging) from biomolecules to coherent atom manipulation, from molecular electronics to semiconductors.
The range of research spans from single atom control in vacuum up to single molecule and biomolecular activity in embedded systems. The initiative therefore requires innovative and multidisciplinary approaches merging key areas such as molecular electronics, single molecule biophysics, coherent atom manipulation and surface chemistry.
Major challenges are:
- To develop enabling technologies for the control at the single atom/molecule scale. The tools to be used could be: optical traps, electro-magnetic fields, scanning probe techniques, surface techniques, single atom/molecule source, methods for nanostructuring of atomic/molecular beams and surfaces at the single particle level, new single particle detection systems.
- To explore new ways to acquire, store and process information in single atom/molecule based systems.
- To develop an understanding of the fundamental processes and the theoretical tools and models, adapted to describe the atomic-scale functionality.
Present technologies are approaching fundamental limits (scaling, power, etc.), which calls for alternative technologies and processes. Atom-scaled technologies will provide the ability to use atomic-scale precision to take advantage of the complexity of atoms and molecules for future information processing systems.
A few examples of emerging technologies to be expected from this initiative could be:
- Ultimate precision/control of a single atom or molecule functionality, control of the connectivity and of addressability of a single atom/molecule. Control of state and conformation, where the conformation is connected to the function.
- An appropriate technology to exchange energy, data and instructions within a single atom or molecule and between different atoms or molecules.
- Control and synthesis down to the sub-nano scale, constructing the system one-by-one from atomic and molecular building blocks.
- Control and design of a biomolecule functionality (mechanics & electronics of molecular machines, biochemical processes, enzymatic activities, etc.) at the single atom level (no thermodynamics). Understanding and control of a biological process molecule per molecule.
- Molecule based computers.
- Atomic clocks.
- Atoms and Molecules as sensors: use the inherent precision in atomic and molecular physics to build ultra sensitive and/or ultra precise devices.
- Interfacing between single atomic/molecular systems and the macro world.
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Experimental STM image of the molecular orbital (HOMO) of a methylterrylene-iso1 molecule adsorbed on thin NaCl thin film deposited on a copper surface |
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