Method and device for producing nanotips

A method for producing at least one nanotip that comprises a tip having a radius of less than 10 nm from a material, hereinafter called a tip material, said method comprising the steps of:

• providing a substrate which consists of the tip material or comprises said tip material in the form of a coating;
• producing a mask from a mask material, wherein the mask material is selected so that, in a predefined reactive ion etching process, the mask material is removed at a lower etching rate than the tip material,
• carrying out the reactive ion etching process in an etching chamber,
• additionally selecting the mask material such that a gaseous component is released from the mask material during the reactive ion etching process, said gaseous component not being released from the tip material during the reactive ion etching process,
• detecting the gaseous component while the ion etching process is being carried out,
• repeatedly determining during the ion etching process whether an amount of the gaseous component in the etching chamber reaches a predefined lower threshold, said predefined lower threshold set to substantially no detection of the gaseous component, and
• stopping the reactive ion etching process as soon as the lower predefined threshold is reached.