Ion-beam lithography commonly uses light ions (protons, helium ions) for the exposure of polymeric resists. The use of heavier ions makes it possible to dope the substrate or create thereon thin layers of new chemical compounds. Differences between the electron and ion lithography are due to greater mass of an ion as compared to the mass of an electron and to the fact that an ion is a many-electron system. A thin beam of ions has a weaker angular scattering in the target than an electron beam, therefore ion-beam lithography has a higher resolution than electron beam lithography. Ion beam energy loss in polymer resists is about 100 times higher than the energy loss of an electron beam, therefore the sensitivity of such resists to an ion beam is also higher. This means that exposure of the resist with a thin ion beam is faster than with an electron beam. An ion beam forms defects, such as vacancy - interstitial Frenkel pairs, and thus changes the solubility speed of dielectrics and metals in certain solvents by about five times. This makes it possible to exclude polymer resists, as the layers of materials themselves act as inorganic resists. Ion-beam lithography systems have a resolution of up to 10 nm.