Twenty years after two IBM scientists won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their design of the Scanning Tunnelling Microscope (STM), which opened the world to individual atoms for the first time, scientists and engineers from IBM Research continue to break new ground in so-called nanotechnology.

Twenty years after two IBM scientists won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their design of the Scanning Tunnelling Microscope (STM), which opened the world to individual atoms for the first time, scientists and engineers from IBM Research continue to break new ground in so-called nanotechnology. IBM recently announced two major scientific breakthroughs at the atomic scale: the first a major step in understanding the ability for single atoms to maintain a specific magnetic direction, making them suitable for future data storage applications and the second a logic switch between individual atoms within a molecule and between molecules, potential building blocks for molecular computers. This is not IBM's first foray into atomic scale research. In fact, two milestone IBM inventions - the STM in 1981 and the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) in 1986 - provided researchers around the world with specialised tools to explore and manipulate materials at the atomic level for the first time. Highlights spanning the history of nanotechnology at IBM from the first invention of the STM, marking more than a quarter century of nanotechnology innovations "Made in IBM Labs", include: 1981 - IBM Fellows Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer design a technique that allows a Scanning Tunneling Microscope to image individual atoms for the first time ever. 1986 - The Atomic Force Microscope is invented by Gerd Binnig, allowing for fractions of a nanometer resolution of atomic elements. 1986 – Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer receive the Nobel Prize in Physics for opening up the world to the atomic scale through the Scanning Tunneling Microscope. 1988 - IBM scientists discover the first experimental observation of photon emission from local nanometer-sizes areas stimulated by a scanning tunneling microscope. This work opened the avenue to investigating emission properties of spatially confined regions, such as luminescence or fluorescence, with a high lateral/spatial resolution. 1989 - IBM Fellow Don Eigler is the first to manipulate atoms on a surface, using the STM to spell out "I-B-M" by positioning 35 xenon atoms. 1991 - IBM scientists develop the first atomic switch, a major milestone on the road to the eventual design of electronic devices of atomic dimensions. 1996 - IBM scientists use the STM to position individual molecules at room temperature for the first time, paving the way for new breakthroughs at the nanoscale. 1996 - The world's smallest abacus is created out of 10 atoms by scientists at IBM, another major milestone in engineering at the nanoscale. 1998 - IBM scientists and partners discover a molecular wheel, which shows promise for gears and motors at the nanoscale. 2000 - IBM and university researchers uncover a new biomechanical phenomenon using tiny silicon fingers; such micromachines could lead to new medical treatments with the ability to discover defects in DNA at the molecular level. 2001 - IBM's "constructive destruction" method overcomes major hurdle for building computer chips beyond silicon with a method to separate semiconducting and metallic nanotubes to form a working transistor on the nanoscale 2001 - IBM scientists unveil the world's first single-molecule computer circuit, carbon nanotube transistors transformed into logic-performing integrated circuits, a major step toward molecular computers. 2002 - IBM researchers build world's smallest operating computing circuits through a molecular cascade 2003 - Scientists from IBM, Columbia University and the University of New Orleans demonstrate the first three-dimensional self assembly of magnetic and semiconducting nanoparticles, a modular assembly method that enables scientists to bring almost any materials together. 2003 - IBM scientists demonstrate the world's smallest solid-state light emitter, suggesting that carbon nanotubes may be suitable for optoelectroinics. 2004 - IBM scientists measure a fundamental magnetic property of a single atom - the energy required to flip its magnetic orientation. This is the first result of a new technique developed to study the properties of nanometer-scale magnetic structures that are expected to revolutionise future information technologies. 2004 - IBM scientists manipulate and control the charge state of individual atoms. This ability to add or remove an electron charge to or from an individual atom can help expand the scope of atom-scale research. Switching between different charge states of an individual atom can enable, for example, unprecedented control in the study of chemical reactivity, optical properties, or magnetic moment. 2004 - IBM scientists make breakthrough in nanoscale imaging - the ability to detect the faint magnetic signal from a single electron buried inside a solid sample is a major milestone toward creating a microscope that can make three-dimensional images of molecules with atomic resolution. 2005 - Using nanoelectronic fabrication technologies, IBM researchers create a tiny device that slows the speed of light, representing a big advance toward the eventual use of light in place of electricity in the connection of electronic components, potentially leading to vast improvements in the performance of computers and other electronic systems. 2006 - IBM researchers build the first complete electronic integrated circuit around a single “carbon nanotube” molecule, a new material that shows promise for providing enhanced performance over today’s standard silicon semiconductors. The achievement is significant because the circuit was built using standard semiconductor processes and used a single molecule as the base for all components in the circuit, rather than linking together individually-constructed components. This can simplify manufacturing and provide the consistency needed to more thoroughly test and adjust the material for use in these applications. 2006 - IBM scientists develop a powerful new technique for exploring and controlling atomic magnetism, an important tool in the quest not only to understand the operation of future computer circuit and data-storage elements as they shrink toward atomic dimensions, but also to lay the foundation for new materials and computing devices that leverage atom-scale magnetic phenomena. 2006 - Quantum mechanics: The atomic-scale precision of this single-molecule chemistry experiment reached new heights in electrical contacting capabilities with individual molecules. It demonstrated that it is not only possible to control the atomic-scale geometry of a metal-molecule contact, but also its coupling strength and the phase of the orbital wave function at the contact point. 2007 - IBM demonstrates the first-ever manufacturing application of "self assembly" used to create a vacuum - the ultimate insulator - around nanowires for next-generation microprocessors for its airgap chip technique. 2007 - IBM researchers demonstrate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to visualise nanoscale objects. This technique brings MRI capability to the nanoscale level for the first time and represents a major milestone in the quest to build a microscope that could "see" individual atoms in three dimensions.