Manipulating adatoms on a semiconductor

The manipulation of Indium adatoms on a III-V semiconductor surface was achieved in a scanning tunneling microscope at 5 K. Reversible repositioning of individual Indium atoms on InAs(111)A allows us to construct one-atom-wide Indium chains.

Our results show for the first time that the combined approach of atom manipulation and local spectroscopy is capable to explore atomic-scale quantum structures on a semiconductor platform.

The figure shows a constant-current STM image of an In₆ chain on InAs(111)A assembled by vertical atom manipulation

Published as

Atom-by-atom quantum state control in adatom chains on a semiconductor
Stefan Fölsch, Jianshu Yang, Christophe Nacci, Kiyoshi Kanisawa Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 096104;(2009)