# Picometer lithography and beyond (physics/EE geeks)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picometer-lithography-and-beyond-physics-ee-geeks/542742>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 11, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picometer-lithography-and-beyond-physics-ee-geeks/542742 "2010-06-11T02:46:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picometer-lithography-and-beyond-physics-ee-geeks/542742/1 "2010-06-11T02:46:33Z")

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I was reading on Ars Technica about a technique that allows you to etch 12 nm wires into a circuit [link](http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/06/heated-atomic-force-microscope-makes-12nm-graphene-circuits.ars). That got me thinking - when will I be reading about picometer lithography on Ars? A short search later and I found [this paper](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B7GVT-4V8FFN3-1/2/4e261e463315ce3ad41fa9c2020f3d30) with the following choice quote: “The potential of using such a pulse for picometer (pm)-scale lithography is plausible”.

That got me thinking though - how is that even possible? A picometer is less than the diameter of an atom. Would we literally be etching features onto the surface of atoms? What’s the reductio of lithography - how far can we go?

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**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picometer-lithography-and-beyond-physics-ee-geeks/542742/2 "2010-06-11T03:58:11Z")

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I believe that by “picometer-scale” they mean that the width of the etching would be measurable in picometers, not that it would be only one picometer wide. Thus, the process might remove an atom or a few atoms per pulse. That would leave an etching a few picometers wide.

An atom doesn’t really have a “surface” so it wouldn’t be possible to etch upon a single atom.

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**Author:** ![FloxenTurtle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FloxenTurtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloxenTurtle)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/picometer-lithography-and-beyond-physics-ee-geeks/542742/3 "2016-09-30T01:33:34Z")

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\*An atom doesn’t really have a “surface” so it wouldn’t be possible to etch upon a single atom. \*

Unless you’re talking about the Voyager episode “Scientific Method”… Bar Codes on atoms in the DNA double helix… I know Star Trek has _always_ thrown physics out the window… Well, perhaps it’s expected - the whole premise of Voyager is that it’s thrown across the galaxy - why not throw the (non)-physics across the galaxy as well!