A quartz crystal mounted on a sample holder in an UHV chamber enables us to monitor sputtering and deposition processes in situ and with extremely high accuracy. The eigenfrequency change of the crystal is directly linked to a mass increase or decrease respectively. With our technique we were able to discover the so-called potential sputtering mechanism (see publications below). We are currently using the setup to investigate erosion of fusion relevant materials by plasma ions as well as deposition and implantation (collaboration with the Max Planck Institut Garching, Institut für Plasmaphysik (IPP)[http://www.ipp.mpg.de] and Forschungszentrum Jülich [http://www.fz-juelich.de].

Review:
F. Aumayr and HP. Winter
Potential sputtering
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London A 362 (2004) 77 -102

G. Hayderer, S. Cernusca, M. Schmid, P. Varga, HP. Winter and F. Aumayr, D. Niemann, V. Hoffmann, N. Stolterfoht, C. Lemell, L. Wirtz, and J. Burgdörfer
Kinetically-assisted potential sputtering of insulators by highly charged ions
Physical Review Letters 86 (2001) 3530 - 3533

G. Hayderer, M. Schmid, P. Varga, HP. Winter, F. Aumayr, L. Wirtz, C. Lemell, J. Burgdörfer, L. Hägg and C.O. Reinhold
Threshold for Potential Sputtering of LiF
Physical Review Letters 83 (1999) 3948 - 3951

M. Sporn, G. Libiseller, T. Neidhart, M. Schmid, F. Aumayr, HP. Winter, P. Varga, M. Grether , D. Niemann and N. Stolterfoht
Potential Sputtering of Clean SiO2 by Slow Highly Charged Ions
Physical Review Letters 79 (1997) 945 - 948

T. Neidhart, F. Pichler, F. Aumayr, HP. Winter, M. Schmid and P. Varga
Potential sputtering of Lithium Fluoride by Slow Multicharged Ions
Physical Review Letters 74 (1995) 5280 - 5283

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