The production of MeV/amu heavy-ion and MeV cluster-ion beams has allo
wed continuous damage tracks to be made in a wide variety of materials
. Using simple phenomenological models of the track-formation process
one can estimate in advance the morphology of the tracks that will res
ult from a particular set of irradiation parameters, i.e., target mate
rial, ion type and energy. In this talk I shall discuss the use of the
se models and how they are applied in a specific example: the pinning
of quantized magnetic-flux vortices in a high-temperature superconduct
or. For this application one must also employ models for the interacti
on of the vortex and the column of damage. On the basis of such simula
tions it is found that although damage tracks are extremely useful for
increasing the flux pinning, and hence the critical current, it would
be even better if one could control the track positions and radii ove
r a wider range of values. A new development in nanotechnology will be
discussed that may, indeed, allow this to be accomplished easily and
inexpensively.