Materiales de Madrid,

Reports on the production of submicron and nanometric patterns on the surfaces of solid targets eroded by ion irradiation (sputtering) at low and medium energies date back to at least the 1960s with the pioneering works by Cunningham et al [1] and Navez et al [2]. However, only with the advent of high resolution tools for surface and interface characterization was the high potential of this procedure recognized as a method for efficient production of well ordered surface patterns. Such morphologies are made up of periodic arrangements of nanometric sized features, that may show properties of high technological interest. In particular, while periodic ripple morphologies had been well documented since their early observations [1, 2], to some extent the observation of ordered arrays of dots (each dot with a linear size of a few nanometers) [3] came both as a surprise and as a challenge. Thus, roughly for the last ten years large efforts have been directed towards harnessing this nanofabrication (nanosculpting [4]) technique. Activities have comprised intensive and fruitful experimental and theoretical work, ranging from basic scientific questions to the elucidation of a wide range of application