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R. Ginzel, S. Higgins, P. Mrowczynski, P. Northway, M. Simon, H. Tawara, J.R. Crespo López-Urrutia, J. Ullrich, G. Kowarik, R. Ritter, W. Meissl, C. Vasko, C. Gösselsberger, A.S. El-Said, F. Aumayr:
"A deceleration system at the Heidelberg EBIT providing very slow highly charged ions for surface nanostructuring";
Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research Section B, 268 (2010), 2972 - 2976.

Recently, it has been demonstrated that each single-impact of a slow (typically 1-2 keV/u) highly charged
ion (HCI) creates truly topographic and non-erasable nanostructures on CaF2 surfaces. To further explore
the possibility of nanostructuring various surfaces, using mainly the potential energy stored in such HCIs,
projectiles with kinetic energies as low as possible are required. For this purpose a new apparatus, capable
of focusing and decelerating an incoming ion beam onto a solid or gaseous target, has been installed at
the Heidelberg electron beam ion trap (EBIT). An X-ray detector and a position-sensitive particle detector
are utilized to analyze the beam and collision products. First experiments have already succeeded in lowering
the kinetic energy of HCIs from 10 keV/q, down to !30 eV/q, and in focusing the decelerated beam
to spot sizes of less than 1 mm2, while maintaining the kinetic energy spread below !20 eV/q.

Highly charged ions Low energy ions Ion-surface interaction Surface nanostructuring Electron beam ion trap