The penetration of heavy charged particles through matter has been the subject of investigations since the early days of Bohr's atomic model. Much later it was found that the resulting traces have dimensions close to the atomic scale and can be revealed in the form of fme patterns. Quite recently, this characteristic attracts applications in micro electronics and -mechanics, biology and medicine, surface and membrane technology, magneto-optics and low temperature physics - applications which require a high subtlety of geometric control on a microscopic scale. Progress in advanced technologies...