Maura Willems , a student of Applied Physics at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) has built what is probably the most minimalist Christmas tree in the world. The TU Deft student works with a tunnel-effect microscope, a very complex device capable of scanning individual atoms and even changing their position. Willems often uses such a microscope to build small structures, atom by atom, in order to study their quantum mechanical properties.
This was when he came up with the great idea of removing 51 atoms from a perfect crystal lattice , resulting in this little Christmas tree and giving his research a much more fun and Christmas application.
It is exactly 4 nanometers high, or 4 millionths of a millimeter, according to the university.
