Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten

DS 2: Focus Session: Tunable Correlations in van der Waals Quantum Materials I (joint session TT/DS/HL)

DS 2.5: Topical Talk

Monday, March 9, 2026, 17:15–17:45, HSZ/0003

Mesoscale Atomic Engineering in a Crystal Lattice — •Julian Klein — Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02319 MA, USA

Controlling the arrangement of individual atoms with lasers, ion traps, and scanning probe techniques has enabled quantum simulation and computing platforms that transcend naturally occurring configurations of matter. Yet achieving comparable atomic control within a solid and at scale remains a foundational challenge, one that could revolutionize the design of artificial matter. Here, I demonstrate atomic engineering of artificial matter inside a scanning transmission electron microscope. By developing strategies to position and move the electron beam with few-picometer accuracy, deterministic control over atomic motion in both space and time is achieved. Full automation of the microscope enables the creation of three-dimensional defect superlattices in many-nanometer thick CrSBr with user-defined lattice spacing and symmetry, spanning tens of thousands of engineered sites over fields of view exceeding one hundred nanometers, all generated in under an hour. Our results establish atomic engineering in the electron microscope as a practical reality, opening unprecedented opportunities to create quantum defects and quantum phases with tunable charge and spin interactions, and to control host-lattice excitations by arranging atoms in patterns that are commensurate or incommensurate with the underlying crystal over mesoscopic, and potentially micro- or macroscopic, length scales.

Keywords: Atomic Engineering; Artificial Matter; Electron Microscopy; Defects; CrSBr