MANIPULATIONS WITH ATOMS AND CLUSTERS

The investigation and fabrication of nanometer-scale structures become s a reality due to the development of scanning tunneling microscopy an d related techniques. Tile final goal, manipulations with tile individ ual atoms and molecules, has been achieved. D.M. Eigler used tile scan ning tunneling microscope (working at low temperatures ca. 4 K) to pos ition individual xenon atoms on a single-crystal nickel surface with a tomic precision. Mesoscopic systems composed of metallic or non-metall ic clusters are intensively studied because of their new and interesti ng properties, and perspectives of subsequent application in nanolitho graphy in order to create various structures of a very high degree of miniaturization. In this review, (i) the potential of scanning probe m icroscopes for revealing subtle details of surfaces down to atomic res olution is presented, (ii) a variety of different atomic manipulations processes and other surface modifications are reviewed against the ba ckground of different, more or less universal approaches, and finally (iii) a few examples of cluster surface structures created and/or modi fied by means of scanning tunneling microscope ale demonstrated.