US researchers break 40-year-old record, reprogram materials using electron beam

MIT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers developed a room-temperature electron-beam method to move atomic columns with picometer precision.

The technique created about 40,000 quantum defects in roughly 40 minutes, a major jump in scalability for atom-by-atom control.

Unlike earlier single-atom placement methods, it can help build more complex 3D atomic structures in solids.

The advance could make quantum materials and devices easier to manufacture outside ultra-cold or vacuum-only setups.