Electron-Beam Method Creates Thousands of Atomic Defects in Crystals

A new electron-beam technique allows researchers to create thousands of atomic defects in a crystal lattice in minutes. The approach extends earlier work that had been limited to moving only a few atoms at a time.

1959 physicist Richard Feynman asked what would happen if atoms could be arranged one by one. Subsequent experiments demonstrated single-atom control using scanning tunneling microscopes and electron beams, but those methods remained slow and limited in scale.

Klein et al. report in Nature that a highly focused electron beam can now manipulate thousands of lattice sites rapidly. The resulting defect patterns are described as controllable and potentially useful for quantum devices. The paper appears in the 13 May 2026 issue. It cites prior studies on electron-beam atom manipulation published between 1990 and 2025.