Fabrication of atomic scale devices

A method for fabricating atomic scale multi-terminal electronic devices, comprising the steps of:

• opening one or more regions of a mask on a semiconductor surface using a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) tip capable of atomic precision or a scanning electron microscope (SEM) capable of micro-nano precision;
• treating the regions to form coplanar components of the device on the semiconductor surface;
• encapsulating the components of the device with more semiconductors;
• imaging the components of the device encapsulated below the surface using an optical or electron microscope to identify locations on the surface of the encapsulated device that are above selected components of the device encapsulated below the surface;
• forming conducting elements on the surface of the encapsulated device at the identified locations;
• and,
• electrically connecting conducting elements on the surface of the encapsulated device with aligned components of the device encapsulated below the surface.