The invention is a novel technique that enables a selective removal of atoms from a material. The innovation uses low energy light ions to locally or globally selectively liberate certain atoms from a material resulting a significant change in the material properties. For example, non-magnetic C0304 can be transformed into magnetic Co by removing the oxygen content using Helium irradiation. This technique is an enabling technology for metallic active nanostructures patterning, which cannot otherwise be produced with reactive ion etching techniques used in semiconductor industry.