THE HEAVY-ION MICROPROBE AT GSI - USED FOR SINGLE ION MICROMECHANICS

Etching of nuclear tracks can yield unique microscopic structures of technical interest in a wide range of different materials. This has already led to many applications using extended beams. Now the heavy ion microprobe has for the first time been used to create micropatterns by shooting every single ion to its desired position. The paper will describe the components of the microprobe essential to the new technique, give an overview over the basic geometries of single ion micromechanics, and show the result of a first experiment.