Donald Mark Eigler

Background

Eigler, Donald Mark was born on March 23, 1953 in Los Angeles, California, United States. Son of Irving Baer and Evelin Muriel Eigler.

Education

Bachelor, University of California, San Diego, 1975; Doctor of Philosophy in Physics, University of California, San Diego, 1984.

Career

In 1989, he was the first to use a scanning tunneling microscope tip to arrange individual atoms on a surface, famously spelling out the letters "International Business Machines Corporation" with 35 xenon atoms. He later went on to create the first quantum corrals, which are well-defined quantum wave patterns of small numbers of atoms, and nanoscale logic circuits using individual molecules of carbon monoxide. Eigler"s 1989 research, along with Erhard K. Schweizer, involved a new use of the scanning tunneling microscope, which had been invented in the mid 1980s by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, also of International Business Machines Corporation. The microscope had previously been used for atomic-resolution imaging, but this was the first time it had been used as an active technique, to precisely position individual atoms on a surface.

At the time, it was seen as a potential first step towards applications in mechanosynthesis, where chemical reactions could be manipulated one molecule at a time.

Eigler"s 2002 research, along with Andreas J. Heinrich, used a cascade of collisions of carbon monoxide molecules to perform logic operations. Eigler graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a bachelor"s degree in 1975 and a doctoral degree in 1984.

He was postdoctoral staff at American Telephone & Telegraph Company Bell Labs for two years, and then moved to International Business Machines Corporation where he was appointed International Business Machines Corporation Fellow in 1993. He retired from International Business Machines Corporation in 2011.

Achievements

• Donald Mark Eigler has been listed as a noteworthy Physicist by Marquis Who's Who.

Membership

Fellow American Physical Society.

Connections

Married Roslyn Winifred Rubesin, November 2, 1986.

Father:

Irving Baer Eigler

Mother:

Evelin Muriel Eigler

Spouse:

Roslyn Winifred Rubesin