Today in history: A nanotech breakthrough

What do atoms have to with IT you may ask? As devices get smaller, researchers are working at an atomic and molecular level to create smaller, faster and more energy efficient processes and memory devices.

On this date in 1989, IBM Fellow Don Eigler became the first man to move and control an individual atom, and heralded a change in the course of nanotechnology research.

Mobile phones companies like Nokia for example, are experimenting with creating nanotechnology devices.

Following that breakthrough in September 1989, it was nearly a couple of months later Eigler used a custom-built microscope to spell out the letters IBM with 35 xenon atoms. He did this by using the tip of his scanning tunnelling microscope' (which won a Nobel Prize), to slide the atoms.

"Don Eigler's accomplishment remains to this day, one of the most important breakthroughs in nanoscience and technology," said TC Chen, vice president for Science and Technology at IBM Research.

"At the time, the implications of this achievement were so far-reaching they almost seemed like far-reaching they almost seemed like science fiction. But now, twenty years later, it's clear that this was a defining moment that has spawned the kind of research that will eventually bring us beyond CMOS and Moore's Law, to advance computing to handle the massive volumes of data in he world while using less energy resources."

Eigler said that his motivation for the research was primarily scientific and to demonstrate that we could control atoms like a child uses Lego blocks.

IBM said that nanotechnology could lead to personalised healthcare treatment. The manipulation of atoms has also lead to the creation of new fabrics and products among other things.

Researchers are exploring building structures and devices out of components made from atoms or molecules, which could lead to future computer chips, storage devices, biosensors and more.