Ion beam control of electrical, magnetic, and optical material properties

The key condition for radical progress in technology in the 21th century is the availability of a method for the controlled production in a solid of 3 D patterns of desired physical and chemical properties, with the possibilit y of downsizing pattern elements to the nanometer scale being a crucial req uirement. In this paper, a method for changing electrical, magnetic, optica l and other key physical properties in a direct and predetermined manner by radically modifying the solid's atomic composition is proposed for the fir st time. The physical basis of the new technology is the observation - well verified in our numerous experiments - that accelerated particle beams can be used to remove atoms from thin films of di- or multi-atomic compounds. It is shown, in particular, that by selectively removing atoms of a given t ype dielectrics can be customized into metals or semiconductors, nonmagneti c materials into magnetic ones, and the optical and other properties of mat erials can be changed radically. The selective removal of atoms of a specif ied type from a material is of great interest for future technologies, espe cially for those relevant to nanoelectronics and, more broadly, to the nume rous 'nanoproblems' ahead in the third millennium.