The possibility to position individual atoms offers prospects for writing digital data with the highest imaginable storage density, provided that a platform is found that is both reliable and scalable. Floris Kalff and co-workers have now developed a technique allowing thousands of bits to be encoded in the positions of individual chlorine atoms atop a copper crystal. The cover image is a scanning tunnelling microscope image, approximately 35 nm wide, of the atomic bit pattern.

Letter p926; News & Views p919

IMAGE: SANDER OTTE, TU DELFT

COVER DESIGN: BETHANY VUKOMANOVIC