APhMS Special Seminar
**Refreshments at 4pm in Spalding lobby
Abstract:
Controlling the arrangement of individual atoms has been achieved with lasers, ion traps, and tip-based scanning probe methods and has enabled quantum simulation and computing platforms that transcend naturally occurring configurations of matter. Yet achieving comparable atomic control at scale within a solid remains a foundational challenge, one that could revolutionize the design of artificial matter.
Here, we establish a fourth approach, deterministic atomic control within a solid using a scanning transmission electron microscope [1]. By developing strategies to deliver electrons with few-picometer accuracy, deterministic control over atomic motion in both space and time is achieved. Automating the microscope enables the creation of 3D 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. The programmed structures are air-stable and show superlattice Bragg reflections in electron beam diffraction.
These advances establish the electron microscope as a powerful platform for engineering and studying new forms of matter with few-picometer precision. Such capabilities open directions to deterministic quantum defect placement, quantum phase simulation, and control of host-lattice excitations, effectively bridging atomic-scale physics to mesoscopic length scales and beyond.
[1] J. Klein et al., Nature, in press (2026)
More about the Speaker:
Julian Klein is a Research Scientist at MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering where he leads a research sub-group studying engineered artificial matter. His work is based around the development of precision in situ electron microscopy techniques for probing and controlling materials with electrons and photons. He joined MIT in 2020 as a Feodor Lynen Postdoctoral Fellow supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from TU Munich, where he studied optical excitations in van der Waals materials, and spent time as a visiting researcher at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center and Columbia University in 2018.