Abstract

The fabrication methods of the microelectronics industry have been refined to produce ever smaller devices, but will soon reach their fundamental limits. A promising alternative route to even smaller functional systems with nanometre dimensions is the autonomous ordering and assembly of atoms and molecules on atomically well-defined surfaces. This approach combines ease of fabrication with exquisite control over the shape, composition and mesoscale organization of the surface structures formed. Once the mechanisms controlling the self-ordering phenomena are fully understood, the self-assembly and growth processes can be steered to create a wide range of surface nanostructures from metallic, semiconducting and molecular materials.

1. Institut de Physique des Nanostructures, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
2. Departments of Chemistry and Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
3. Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Heisenbergstrasse 1, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany.

Correspondence to: Klaus Kern^1,3 Email: k.kern@fkf.mpg.de

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