Researchers at the University of Michigan have now been able to get even closer to molecules (see the image, from right to left). Using a scanning tunnel microscope, the states of electrons in a piece of graphene just seven atoms wide can now be reproduced with an accuracy of ten-millionths of a millimetre. A team led by Roman Fasel from Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, provided the necessary expertise on graphene nanoribbons that are suitable for high-precision electronic circuits.

S. E. Ammerman et al.: Lightwave-driven scanning tunnelling spectroscopy of atomically precise graphene nanoribbons. Nature Communications (2021)

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