It was shown that it was now possible to re-structure a metal surface completely by means of the precise manipulation of individual atoms; using a scanning tunnelling microscope. As well as being able to extract atoms from kink sites on the (211) surface, it was possible to extract atoms from the even more strongly bound intrinsic step sites and thus create adatom-vacancy pairs. Together with the ability to move adatoms along, and across, intrinsic step edges and the ability to remove adatom-vacancy pairs, a complete set of lateral manipulation processes was also available.

G.Meyer, L.Bartels, S.Zöphel, E.Henze, K.H.Rieder: Physical Review Letters, 1997, 78[8], 1512-5