The capabilities of the system were first tested by growing arrays of 10-30 nm wide metallic nanowires on two types of vicinal substrates, step-bunched Si(111) and α-Al2O3(0001).
Since its introduction in 2008, ATLAS has been demonstrated as a simple technique to produce nanowires of a variety of materials down to a width of 15 nm and thickness of 2 nm, on several stepped substrates.