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This might be a stupid question, but: in chemistry, we learnt that electrons and atoms are never at rest, but moving around and shaking due to temperature, so that you can't be 100% certain of their position at any given instant of time. So how come that we are able, using nano technlogy, to move around single atoms and place them into any pattern that we want to?? Wouldn't they shake themselves out of place pretty soon?
[/stupid question]
[/stupid question]
Not a stupid question at all.
Science needs questions like these to keep on going. Otherwise we will be eventually dominated by media releases with little in-depth coverage.
If the surface binding energy of the atom is much larger than the thermal energy (kT=Boltzmann constant * temperature), than it will be stable. Otherwise it could desorb or else move around quite a bit.
Even at room temperature, you can experience AFM image drift due to sample thermal motion.
Science needs questions like these to keep on going. Otherwise we will be eventually dominated by media releases with little in-depth coverage.
If the surface binding energy of the atom is much larger than the thermal energy (kT=Boltzmann constant * temperature), than it will be stable. Otherwise it could desorb or else move around quite a bit.
Even at room temperature, you can experience AFM image drift due to sample thermal motion.
Thank you for your reply! 
But what exactly is surface binding energy? Do you mean the strength of the bonds between the atoms?
But what exactly is surface binding energy? Do you mean the strength of the bonds between the atoms?
For the case of moving an atom around on a surface, it's the attraction between the atom and the surface that counts. Frequently, people deposit atoms different from the bulk material on the surface. For the atoms in the bulk material, the bonds count.
The binding energy is the energy that needs to be put in to release the atom to become a freely moving particle.
The efficiency of transferring this energy is not that high, so it's not a common process, but the most common one would be etching.
The binding energy is the energy that needs to be put in to release the atom to become a freely moving particle.
The efficiency of transferring this energy is not that high, so it's not a common process, but the most common one would be etching.