[krastanov]

Usually they randomly shoot atoms at the substrate and then just search for a spot (among thousands) where it randomly has the configuration they want. Still pretty amazing.

[trebligdivad]

Can they do that here, they've got quite a few sets of 4/5 atoms which they've interconnected, so that's a lot to get by shotgunning it. I'd assumed they were using something like a STM to nudge the atoms around.

[wrs]

The “precision manufacturing” reference in the paper is to this 2012 paper about an STM placement technique. [0]

[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/nnano.2012.21

[8note]

hmm. i remember my electron microscopes prof being very excited about his ability to manipulate single atoms exactly where he wants them ~10years ago.

id have assumed the holography has gotten more common and able to operate on bigger volumes