Why gemstone metamaterial technology should work in brief
The idea of atomically precise gemstone based on-chip factories and their technology has faced major disbelieve and push-back in the past.
Here are the probably hardest arguments for this tech to be actually possible summarized in as brief a way as possible.
Regarding concerns about friction

Concerns about friction have been experimentally dispelled (not only theoretically).
Coaxial nanotubes are already experimentally accessible and they indeed show superlubricity.
- Newer (2017) work on friction (theoretical and experimental).
See: Evaluating the Friction of Rotary Joints in Molecular Machines (paper) - Theoretical estimations on frictions can be found in the book: Nanosystems
More info on and discussion of less common concerns here:
Experimental demonstration of superlubric sliders and rotator and vdW suck-in
(wiki-TODO: Add reference to and discussion of paper.)
Pathway concerns
direct path & mixed path
Regarding concerns about atom-by-atom pick-and-place assembly aka piezochemical mechanosynthesis.
ED … experimental demonstration
ED of that scanning in 3D (high vertical ledges) is now possible
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04843-z
- to this preceding papers
ED of strong covalent nano-molecular manipulation in 3D
ED of SPM manipulations being automateable and scaleable
ED of elemental identification of element types via force curves
(wiki-TODO: Add reference to and discussion of paper.)
Great progress in atomically resolving nc-AFM
Graphene sp2 carbon nanoribbons:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene_nanoribbon
- https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9098 (Fig3 g)
Less flat sp3 carbon too under special circumstances:
ED of preserving of structure during transfer to a different macroscale sample and back
(wiki-TODO: Add reference to best fitting COFI paper (& …) and discussion of paper.)
Progress with ultra flat surfaces
- diamond(100) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925963525002389
- gold …
Progress with potential "adapter molecules"
(wiki-TODO: Add reference to and discussion of papers.)
- several papers
- transfer paper & conductivity paper
Early ED (on silicon)

It was possible to experimentally demonstrate mechanosynthesis of silicon.
Abd that even even with today's still very crude means (meaning blunt tips).
See: Silicon mechanosynthesis demonstration paper or more generally: Experimental demonstrations of single atom manipulation
- Silicon is a relevant material quite similar in covalent character to diamond.
- This has been done an reasonable temperatures (meaning not liquid helium but liquid nitogen)
Highly meticulous theoretical analysis (with carbon, a complete system)
It has been shown that the infamous finger problems like the sticky finger problem and the fat finger problem are invalid.
See: A Minimal Toolset for Positional Diamond Mechanosynthesis (paper)
Incrementap path & mixed path
- Progress in hierarchical assembly.
(wiki-TODO: Add reference to and discussion of papers.)
Related
- Experimental demonstrations of single atom manipulation
- Common misconceptions about atomically precise manufacturing
- Macroscale style machinery at the nanoscale
- Higher throughput of smaller machinery – Scaling laws
- Exploratory engineering