Abstract
In consecution to previous publications some recent developments of ion beam devices and their application are discussed: The construction of compact and efficient ion sources for ion etching and sputtering under high vacuum conditions has improved the versatility of the method both for research and technological applications. As a contribution to basic research in-situ observations of ion etching and sputtering phenomena inside transmission- and scanning electron microscopes have been performed. New variants of chemical reactive sputter deposition have been studied using either bombardment with ions of reactive gases and/or two-beam sputter techniques.