The world’s smallest film, “A boy and his atom,” has been produced using individual CO molecules on an atomic level. The plot of the short film, in which a boy plays with a ball and jumps on a trampoline, quickly takes a backseat when considering the creation story behind it. Scientists moved individual CO molecules on a copper plate to create an image, which was then combined into a stop-motion film using hundreds of individual images from a scanning tunneling microscope. The film is unique because it was not shot in a studio but under a scanning tunneling microscope in a research laboratory of the American IT company IBM.
The stop-motion film, which lasts about a minute, consists of 242 individual frames. IBM researchers moved dozens of CO molecules on a small copper plate using the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope. They built the film frame by frame until it was complete. According to IBM, the scanning tunneling microscope used is one of the few in the world capable of working with such precision. Although there have been previous film recordings of moving atoms, IBM was the first to tell a small animated story.
The scanning tunneling microscope, which weighs around two tons, operates at minus 268 degrees Celsius, close to absolute zero. This allowed the scientists to remove the motion energy from the atoms and place them in the desired locations. The goal of the work was to determine how atoms could be used as data storage. The German chief scientist of IBM, Andreas Heinrich, hopes that the film will inspire people to be fascinated by the atomic world and encourage children to become interested in science. “If I can get kids interested in science instead of studying law, I would be super happy,” he said.
