Activities of the Joint Research Center for Atom Technology (JRCAT)

The invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) has enabled us to observe, pick up and transfer individual atoms constituting solid matters. This new frontier of science and technology to control matter on an atomic scale is collectively called "Atom Technology". Atom Technology is expected to exert broad impacts not only on physics, chemistry and biology, but also on engineering because STM and its related technologies such as atomic force microscope (AFM) or scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) enabled the in-situ observation of atomic arrangements on solid surfaces and stochastic systems in real space. These possibilities will bring us some insights into aspects closely related to engineering applications, such as catalytic reactions and other surface phenomena, defects and impurities in semiconductors, electrode/solid interfaces, etc. This paper introduces the organization, the scope and the activities of the Atom Technology Project. The Atom Technology Project is one of MITI's 10-year projects, which is carried out under the equal partnership of national institutes, universities and private sectors. The Joint Research Center for Atom Technology is a concentrated research laboratory where about 100 scientists are working together.